A Simple Twist of Fate
by ayla darrow
Summary: Terrwyn Argall has been on her own since her parents' tragic fate. She had traveled from New York to Georgia in search of her older brother, but instead she meets Daryl Dixon who seems to have an urge to make sure that she stays out of harms way. Rated M to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

If anyone had told Terrwyn Argall that she would be fending for her life on the highway, she would have assumed that they meant that she would be trying to live through traffic. She wouldn't have dreamt, even in her wildest dreams, that she would be fighting off the Walking Dead. Why would she have? She had never been a strong follower of pop culture, so the idea of walking dead had been absurd to her. She had never understood why people watched movies and read books about things that didn't exist. Of course, things had to go in the one direction she never expected them to go. Now she was wandering down an unknown road in what she believed to be Georgia, although she had no real way of being sure.

She remembered seeing the standard "welcome to Georgia" sign when she entered the state and she had seen Atlanta, so the natural assumptions was that she still resided in the peach state.

She stopped to look into a car, where she had heard a strange, gurgling sound. Her face contorted momentarily as she realized what was making that sound. It was a baby, no older than two years old. It was fastened into a child seat but she could tell from the way its flesh seemed to be melting off its face that it had been a victim of the virus. It took her only a moment to contemplate what to do. She pulled the door open and was met with the baby wildly waving its arms towards her. The corners of Terrwyn's mouth twisted as she pulled out a machete she kept for close combat. "I'm sorry kiddo," she murmured, her voice filled with melancholy. She took only one swift hit and the gurgles and hissing ceased immediately.

No one was safe. Old people, young people… Even tiny babies were infected with this virus that made them all into bloodthirsty beings who had only one thing in mind: food. Terrwyn was in the unfortunate position of being the food that they were looking for. Even her family hadn't been safe from the virus. Terrwyn had come from a small Irish-American family from New York. Her mother had been a second generation Irish-American while her father had been almost fresh off the boat when he met her mother. They had settled down at a young age and produced two children: Terrwyn and her brother.

Her mother had been the first one to go; almost a week after New York had become infested with Walkers. Her father had subsequently taken his own life, only to come back as one of those… things as well. Terrwyn's brother however, remained a mystery. Last thing she knew he had been in Atlanta, which was probably why she had set her heart on going all the way down to Georgia. Growing up they had been particularly close; she followed him around, hung out with his friends and took part in the shady business that later on became his life.

Terrwyn pushed the memories of her family away, reminding herself that to survive in this crazy world she had to be able to stay strong. Emotional breakdowns were a big no-no and she was certain that if she let her mind dwell long enough on the death, rising and second death of her parents she would be on a good way to getting one. She moved swiftly to the trunk of the car and kicked it a few times until it slowly opened, revealing to her the good that were within.

Terrwyn grinned as she began picking out the good stuff. There were a couple cans of baked beans, a can of peaches, a can with pineapple bits and a big bag of chips. "Bingo, we have a winner," Terrwyn mumbled to herself as she opened up the can of peaches with a small knife she had pocketed from the butcher shop. The first thing she did was down the juice that was in the can. She couldn't remember when she had such a pure form of liquid. Usually she had to make-do with the sauce that baked beans. She licked her lips clean and let out a pleasurable squeal, obviously happy with her find. She placed the other cans in her duffle bag and she quickly climbed up on to the car and took a seat.

Far too often had she been ambushed by Walkers while she was busy devouring whatever food she had managed to find. Recently she had made it a habit to get up on to the cars and consume her food there. Even if the Walkers ambushed her while she was eating, she would at least have a slight advantage, involving her being on top of the car. She took her sweet time fishing out the slice of peach and she allowed the peaches to sit in her mouth before swallowing. Her eyes welled up from the joy of having something as sweet as peaches.

Feeling perfectly safe she opened up her duffle bag, carefully placed the shotgun she had inside of it to the side and she rummaged through the bag momentarily until she found what she was looking for. "I've missed you baby," she said with a grin on her face as she stared at the whiskey bottle in front of her. She didn't waste any time; she opened up the bottle and pressed it to her lips, knowingly wasting away the fruit juices she had been enjoying earlier. She chugged for a while before pulling the bottle away from her lips and closing it back up.

She couldn't afford to get drunk in an open area like the high way and she was well aware of that. But tipsy couldn't be so bad, now could it?

"Behind you!"

Terrwyn nearly lost her balance as someone shouted in her general direction. However, trusting the person blindly, she picked up her machete, stood up and turned around. Once again she was pretty close to being Walker chow. She jumped off of the car and landed in front of the Walker. It was a woman who looked like she might have been in her early thirties. There were only a few strands of red hair hanging from her head, indicating that she had been a Walker for quite a while. Terrwyn made the mistake of inhaling and anyone would have been able to tell that the smell was horrendous from the way her nose scrunched up.

"You really smell bad," she said as she swung her machete with all the force she could muster, effectively cleaving the Walker's head. She climbed back on to the car and she had resumed picking the peaches from the can before she remembered that someone had warned her about the Walker behind her. Instinctively she picked up her shotgun and she swallowed the peach she had in her mouth before setting down the can.

"Show yourself, stranger," she said loudly as she positioned herself at the edge of the car, allowing her feet to hang over the edge. She held the shotgun with both hands in a terrible attempt to stable her hands, which were hopelessly unsteady.

"Why would I do that? You've got your finger on the trigger," the voice said from behind what seemed to be an RV. Terrwyn looked down at her hands and realized that she was ready to pull the trigger. Whether it was something that had become an automated reaction or something she had done on purpose, she had no idea. She pulled away from the trigger and merely held on to the handle. "That's more like it," the voice said and soon a hand adorning a crossbow appeared from the side of the RV.

"No fair, you can shoot no problem with that crossbow, with your hand on it like that," Terrwyn retorted suddenly, her fingers moving back to the trigger. The hand, obviously belonging to a male moved the fingers away from the trigger on the crossbow and instantly Terrwyn's fingers relaxed. She didn't move her eyes away from the RV as the figured slowly appeared. Her right hand, however, left the shotgun and pulled out another peach, which she pretty much stuffed it into her mouth causing the corner of the man's mouth to turn slightly upwards.

"See, I mean no harm, girl," he said, allowing his hands to lower, lowering the crossbow in the process. He couldn't help but stare at the woman he had been watching from afar for nearly half a day. He had been able to tell that she was dressed nicely for someone going through an apocalypse from afar but that was about it. Up close he could see that her hair, tied up into a messy knot, was dirty blond instead of the light brown color he thought he had been seeing. Her eyes were a steel blue color and it felt as if she was staring him down. Her clothes were torn, indicating that she had been wearing them for quite a while.

"Who are you calling girl?" she questioned, her eyebrows raised. "I believe I qualify as a woman," she added with a slight frown.

"Woman wouldn't have sounded as good at the end of that sentence," he said, with a shrug.

"Thanks," she said, throwing the now empty can carelessly on to the road. He looked puzzled for a moment. "You know, letting me know about that Walker," she said, closing up her duffle bag and sliding off of the car, the shotgun in one hand and a machete in the other. She quickly put away the machete in the makeshift holster she had made for the machete. She pulled the duffle bag down from the car and put it on. "Are you traveling alone?" she asked.

"Sort of," he answered. "I am with a group but I went out hunting."

"Out by the highway?" she asked, with a look of incertitude on her face. She tilted her slightly as she began to take in this strange man. He was dirty, that went without saying. He had short dark hair and the clothes he wore made her guess that he was a local, at least closer to being a local than she was. She couldn't help but think that he was rather handsome. She couldn't even remember seeing a decent looking guy who wasn't a Walker or well out of her comfort-zone in regards to age since the whole apocalypse deal began. Her cheeks flushed slightly as her thoughts began to wander.

"Well, I went out hunting originally… But then I came across your camp and I've been-"

"Following me?" she interjected, slightly more worked up than she meant to be.

"Well, observing you," he answered sheepishly. "Seeing if you were someone to be trusted and if you were really alone," he elaborated, hoping to alleviate the situation.

"I don't care why. You were following me like some… creep," Terrwyn said, shaking slightly at the memory of the things that had gone down in North Carolina. She had been followed by a group of survivors who eventually trapped her and later attempted to consume her. She frowned momentarily before she looked at the man again. Her gut was telling her that he wasn't going to try and eat her; he really didn't look interested in consuming human flesh.

Her stomach growled and she silently cursed the man for interrupting her meal time. She could have dealt with the Walker fine, as long as she avoided getting bit. She sighed and returned to the trunk and pulled out a can of tuna that she had planned on ignoring earlier. But her stomach was beckoning for food and she didn't want to open up her duffle bag once more. She opened the can with ease; it had one of those pull off lids. Prior to the dead walking, Terrwyn had been the type who scorned canned food because of its lack of freshness. However, she had come to appreciate the fact that the food could be eaten well after its fresher counterpart would have rotted away.

She began picking out the tuna, turning away from the stranger. She was attempting to ignore him in hopes that ignoring him would make him disappear. It took a few minutes but she began to hear the shuffle of his feet. Taking it a sign of victory she turned herself around so that she could watch him walk away. Instead she saw that he had only moved so that he was leaning against the car next to the one she had positioned herself by. It looked like he was waiting for her to finish the tuna.

"What do you want?" she asked, obviously vexed by his company now. The giddiness over seeing a handsome male had now worn off and it had been replaced with a strong yearning to be alone.

"I'd like to help you. A woman shouldn't have to wander this place alone. Not with the Walkers around every corner," he said, honestly worried for her sake.

"Are you kidding me?" Terrwyn asked before letting out a short, loud laugh. "I'm sorry, but I've manage to survive this long by myself," she added before shoveling another dose of tuna into her mouth. She chewed slowly, trying to ignore the revolting texture of the tuna.

"Look, things aren't getting any better out here. Their hoards are getting bigger. It's not safe for anyone to be out on their own."

"And you're telling me it's better to be in a group?" she challenged.

"It's better than being on your own. For survival," he said, not wholeheartedly agreeing with his words. His group wasn't what he would call a good group. It was filled with people who didn't do jack-shit unless they were forced to and like he had told them so many times before, their group was broken. But they had gotten this far with only a few casualties in their group and with their combined skills, he was sure that they would be able to survive at least another year in this environment.

"On my own I don't have to worry about others. I don't have any obligations to run a little slower or to keep an eye out for anyone other than myself. I don't have to worry about someone flipping their shit and losing their minds. I have managed to survive this whole damn time with little assistance from anyone else," she stated, obviously convinced that it was better to be without companions. "But my favorite part about not being in a group is that I don't have to pretend to like someone to keep the peace."

She took the last of the tuna and shoved it into her mouth as she threw the can on to the ground. She looked at the man with a raised brow and waited for him to come with some sort of reply, something that was supposed to convince her that she was still wrong. After a while of silence she shrugged and headed off to the next car where she once again kicked the trunk a few times, hoping that the trunk would fly open. "Piece of shit Ford," she muttered, kicking again with all her might.

Suddenly the trunk popped open, much to her surprise. She looked up and there stood the man with the driver's door open. Terrwyn mouthed something incomprehensible to the man as she began to dig through the trunk, careless throwing things on to the ground.

"You don't have to get along with everyone. You can think about yourself and tell people you don't like them. Hell, I do what I want. I don't give a damn what I'm supposed to do. I do what I want," Terrwyn listened carefully as he went on about his group. There was obvious disdain for some of the members but slight fondness for some of them. She tried to act as if she didn't care but sometimes she found herself looking up at him, curious to hear more about what had gone down. Much to her dismay, he stopped after telling her about the other members, not bothering to tell much of their story.

She stood up straight and looked at him.

"If you really want me in your group that bad," she said, her voice almost containing a hint of playfulness in it. "I guess it wouldn't be so bad. I haven't really talked to people since the-" she paused momentarily, wondering what to call the incident with the creepy group that tried to eat her. "The cannibal incident," she finished, settling on the obvious name.

"But it should be perfectly clear: I'm not going to stick my neck out the window for people I don't know or don't like. I'm not going to give my stuff unless I want to and I am sure that I am going to actively dislike at least one of the members of this group."

The man smiled slightly, happy that he had managed to coerce her into following him to the group. He didn't know why it had felt like it was important to him to get her to join them. She had just seemed like she was the type who would get herself killed simply by walking out of the house. Maybe it was sexist, but had it been a man traveling alone he wouldn't have worried about the man as much as he worried about this woman who barely reached his shoulders.

"We should go before it gets dark," he said, suddenly looking around at the sky which was beginning to darken.

"Alright. Where'd you set up camp?" she questioned, stuffing items from the trunk into a bag she had found in the back of the trunk.

"In a prison," he answered, catching her attention.

"If you would have told me that you had an actual building, you could have saved both of us a lot of time," she said, closing the backpack and putting it on backwards, so that it was resting on her front. The idea of an actual building was so enticing that she didn't think to ask any more questions. She followed obediently as he headed back into the woods.

"I didn't catch your name," she suddenly pointed out.

"Daryl," he said, not bothering to reveal his last name. "What about you, woman?" he said, making sure that he emphasized woman.

Terrwyn laughed. "Terrwyn," she answered.

"Terrwyn… Ain't exactly easy on the tongue," he commented as he marched on.

"Then it's Terry."

* * *

**A/N:** So I hope you like the first chapter of _A Simple Twist of Fate._ I realize that Daryl might be out of character, but hey, that's fine and dandy. Otherwise you wouldn't have read to the end, now would you? I fully plan on ignoring whatever happens in Season 3. The prison is however an idea I took from bother the ending of season two (the building in the end, remember?) and the comics. I won't say anymore to avoid spoiling anything for anyone. But that's about all. From this story on, I'll be making things go my way. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Reviews would be appreciated. (Hint: I might post chapter two, which is complete, sooner if I get encouragement!)


	2. Chapter 2

Terrwyn watched as everyone went on with their usual business. The old man and his daughters were busy tending to a garden of some sort. The women, with whom Terrwyn couldn't find any common ground, were walking around, chatting away. Terrwyn had overheard one of them complaining that the men were making them do the cleaning and the cooking, yet they still walked around, doing the womanly chores without protesting further. Terrwyn sighed, allowing her body to rest on the wall of the prison.

Despite the abundance of irritating people, Terrwyn could see herself staying with this group for a while. There were a few people she had taken a liking to. The self-proclaimed leader, Rick, seemed like a nice enough guy and his son had been one of the few who didn't shoot a distrustful glance in Terrwyn's direction. Of course, she preferred Daryl over all of them. He had persuaded her to come to this haven. She had been able to get her first night of proper sleep in one of those prison cells, despite being locked up at night, thanks to him.

"It's better than camping out there, isn't it?"

Terrwyn hadn't noticed the small person who had turned up at her side until he spoke up. She smiled slightly, happy that she had been approached by someone who was pleasant. "It is. No more sleeping in cars and fighting off Walkers wherever I go," she answered, recalling in her mind quite a few incidents where she had been rudely awakened by a Walker attempting to get at her from the outside of a car. Incidents like those made it difficult for her to sleep a whole night's sleep, even if her slumber is without incident.

"Where'd you come from?" he inquired.

"New York."

"That's far away. Why'd you come all the way down to Georgia?" Carl asked, obviously confused as to why someone would go such a long way.

"My brother was in Atlanta when everything begun. After my parents-" she paused momentarily, wondering whether it was appropriate to tell him what had happened. Then she remembered that he lived in the same world as she did, therefore it was likely that he had seen pretty much the same things she had seen. "After they turned, I decided that I had to try to find my brother. So I hurried on down here."

"I'm sure you can find him. Dad found us, even though we had gone to Atlanta," Carl said, in an attempt to offer Terrwyn reassurance.

They stood in silence momentarily, each of them lost in their thoughts. Her were filled with question whether it was possible that her brother had managed to get out of Atlanta alive. She reminded herself that she had managed to get out of New York City alive and her brother, who she saw as ten times stronger and smarter as herself, was bound to have found a way out of Atlanta. There was even the possibility that he had set out to New York to find her and their parents. Her thoughts were interrupted by someone calling out her name.

"Terry!"

She looked up to see Daryl, who beckoned her to approach him. She looked at Carl and waved before heading towards Daryl. "We're going hunting," he said, almost immediately heading towards the gate of the prison, not giving Terrwyn any time to protest or even ask Rick for her shotgun. His wife, Lori, had insisted that it would be safer for all of them if Terrwyn didn't have her weapons or any of her things. Terrwyn had been offended at the idea that she would try to kill them all when they were allowing her to stay at their sanctuary but she tried to understand that people reacted differently to disaster and some people's reactions were to turn to paranoia.

"I don't have anything to hunt with," she said when she was finally walking besides Daryl. He looked at her and held up his left hand, in which he held her shotgun. She smiled and took it from him without so much as a thank-you. She felt that it was her right to bear her weapons and that it had been ridiculous for them to take it away from her to begin with. They silently sauntered in the shades of the trees, neither bothering to say anything to the other.

She wasn't going to admit it to her companion, but Terrwyn had never gone hunting before. Heck, even while she was on her own she had relied on abandoned cars and supermarkets for food. She had tried to hunt a couple of times but she was useless with a gun. She had played countless video games but she knew that that wouldn't prepare her for using an actual gun. She was able to tell guns apart and she had some idea what kind of ammo belonged to the guns she was familiar with. But shooting one was useless, her aim was so bad that she was sure that a child could be a better shot than she was.

Her eyes traveled over to Daryl and she watch as he looked around the area carefully, scanning for something to shoot. Suddenly he stopped and motioned her to do so too. Terrwyn stopped dead in her tracks and concentrated on listening for sounds. It took her a while, but eventually she could hear the leaves gently rustling from her left. She turned her head and peered her eyes in an attempt to see what was making the noise. Soon enough, she noticed a shape moving. "Rabbit?" she mouthed, looking at Daryl who nodded. He reached for his crossbow. Terrwyn watched intently as he aimed and shot, getting the rabbit square in the head.

"Finding something soon doesn't happen often. Damn Walkers usually get to the fresh meat first," Daryl commented as they approached the dead rabbit. "I guess you're a lucky rabbit's foot." Terrwyn wanted to laugh at that statement but she decided that it was best to avoid doing so. Never had she been referred to as a lucky token of some sort, especially not a rabbit's foot. Her brother's friends had even commented that it was bad for business that she hung around him at all times.

He picked up the rabbit by its ears and looked at Terrwyn with a blank expression, although she could swear that she saw some hint of triumph.

"So what's your story?" Terrwyn suddenly found herself asking.

"You want to hear my story?" Daryl asked, slightly amused.

"If you want to share," she said, with a shrug.

"Ain't much to tell. Grew up here in Georgia. When the Walkers started popping up, my brother and I headed towards Atlanta, which was declared a safe zone. We ran into Shane and the rest of the group outside Atlanta after we found out that Atlanta was forsaken. Been with them ever since," he explained. "They left my brother on top of a building in Atlanta. We went to get him, but he was gone. That should get you up to date," Daryl added, not wanting to talk further about his brother. He still resented the rest of the group for leaving Merle out there to fend for himself, even though he knew that his brother could survive.

"I would have shot anyone on the spot if they had left my brother to fend for himself," Terrwyn commented.

"I was close, believe me," Daryl said, looking vexed. "What about you?" he asked, taking a few steps so that he was fairly close to Terrwyn. That was the way things had worked. People asked questions to have others ask the question back, at least that seemed to be the way most people operated. She shrugged, as if she were trying to convince herself that it wasn't one worth telling.

"I grew up in New York City. My family had a butcher shop where I worked pretty much since I was old enough to hold a knife. I spent a lot of time with my older brother when I wasn't in the butcher shop. We stayed in when all this started but eventually my mam got bit and da went out soon after. Last I heard of my brother he had been in Atlanta, so I decided that staying in New York was a dumb idea, so I headed out here, hoping to find him," she chuckled slightly at the idea that she had thought that she would be able to find her brother in Atlanta, even if it hadn't been forsaken. "It was a dumb idea, but it gave me something to work for."

Daryl looked at the woman that stood in front of him. First when he saw he had thought that she had just recently split from a group or that she had some sort of safe house in the area. He hadn't thought for a second that this short blonde would be able to fend for herself for long. Going through New York must have been a pain and being dedicated enough to travel all the way down to Georgia told him that she was either really stubborn or really desperate.

"What are you going to do now then?" The words slipped past his lips even before the thought about them.

"I don't know. I guess I could start off with working on surviving," she said with an infectious grin which left Daryl unable to crack a slight smile of his own.

"That's as good place as any to start out."

They resumed trekking through the woods, occasionally stopping in hopes of wandering into some prey. Most of the time it wasn't anything worthwhile, just a squirrel or something of similar size. They had come across two Walkers, which according to Daryl, was far less than he had been expecting to see that day.

Finally the pattern was broken when Terrwyn was the one who stopped first, catching Daryl's attention immediately. She looked around, trying to pinpoint the exact sound that had caught her attention. Then she heard it again, some sort of crunch. She slowly turned herself to the left and then she saw what had caught her attention. She looked at Daryl with an expression that made it obvious that she was immensely proud of having found something. He imitated the motion of shooting a gun and pointed at Terrwyn.

Instantly her heart began to beat faster and her hands began to tremble slightly. Daryl was the last person she wanted to find out about how inept she was with the shotgun. However she held up the gun and pointed it at the doe, desperately trying to find a reason for her not to shoot. As her finger touched the trigger she found a solid excuse in her mind. She put down the gun and looked at Daryl. "Wouldn't a shot attract the Walkers?" she said, trying to suppress the smile that was threatening to spill on to her lips.

Daryl didn't reply, instead he took a few steps closer so that he was only inches away from her and he handed her his crossbow. Terrwyn's heart sunk as the realization that she wouldn't be able to get out of shooting the deer and revealing that she was clumsy. She was beginning to regret pointing out the doe to him. Her spotting, her kill. That was the way it seemed to work in his mind. She looked down at the crossbow and sighed. She wanted to tough it out and just shoot the damn thing already. But in order to shoot it, she had to be able to actually get a hit.

"I'm not good with shooting. I… Don't want to miss," she admitted with a timorous expression on her face.

"It ain't that hard," Daryl said in a low voice as he used his right hand to grab hers, which had the crossbow in it. He gently pulled it up so that it was at the same level as her face. Then he grabbed her left hand and directed it so that it was also on the crossbow. Because of the height difference, he had no problem leaning his head forward so that he could easily give her instructions that barely qualified as whispers.

"First thing, you have to calm down."

Daryl voice in Terrwyn's ear first made her heart pound harder against her chest but as the seconds passed, it slowly calmed down and her hands began to steady with the help of Daryl's hands. Thankfully the doe was preoccupied with something, giving Daryl enough time to properly position the crossbow. "Now, you just have to aim carefully. Don't just shot without thought. One arrow should be enough to take it down."

His finger pressed against hers, letting her know that it was about time. Terrwyn closed her left eye in an attempt to make sure that the aim was at least close to the doe. Following Daryl's lead she pulled the trigger, releasing the arrow. As quickly as she had pulled the trigger, the doe fell down. They had gotten it square in the head. Although, Terrwyn reminded herself that it was more Daryl than her. He was the expert and she was the greenhorn who needed his guidance.

"Now that wasn't so hard, now was it?"

In the heat of the moment Terrwyn had somehow become unaware that Daryl was still holding her in the shooting position. His words, which had slithered into her ear, caused goosebumps to crawl down her arms. Daryl kept his position for only a moment longer and then he quickly let go. Terrwyn scurried over to the doe as she felt her cheeks warm up. She felt like an imbecile for allowing something as trivial as someone speaking close to her ear fluster her. "Doesn't look like much food," she commented, bending down to examine the doe better. Just looking at it made her mouth water and she certainly didn't want to share it with the other people in the group but she knew how things went. They hunt, everyone feeds.

"Don't matter. It's not like we're short on food," Daryl said, sauntering towards her. Terrwyn turned her head and looked at him questioningly. If they weren't short on food, why would they be out hunting? Almost as if he read her mind, Daryl answered: "Variety is appreciated by them. Nobody wants to eat canned food all the time." Of course, how did she not think of that? Even though she had grown to appreciate canned food, there was no reason that the same had to apply to others. Especially not children, such as Carl.

He was leaving out the part where he couldn't stand being around the group 24/7. They were good people but he often found himself frustrated with them after having been with them too long. Going hunting was a way for him to clear his head and recharge. Today had been more for her than him though. He had noticed how she didn't exactly get along with Lori and Carol. The way she had spent most of the morning standing and staring told him that she wasn't comfortable at all and he figured that maybe she needed time to recharge.

"If I had my knives with me we could have taken care of skinning and taking the good parts off," Terrwyn said with a dejected sigh. Even though Daryl had gone through the trouble of bringing her the shotgun, her duffle bag still remained hidden somewhere in the prison. Within it were things she had considered essential for a good life: extra pair of socks, whiskey, her knife set, a few books she had brought with herself and an oversized army type jacket which had saved her from freezing to death countless times.

A single chuckle emitted from Daryl's mouth, causing the corners of Terrwyn's mouth to turn slightly downwards. "What?" she asked in a manner that implied that she was protesting that she had done anything worthy of a chuckle. "You don't know how to shoot but you know how to skin an animal," he commented. "I told you, my family owned a butcher shop. Da's friends would bring in fresh meat, including deer," she remarked defensively as she stood back up.

"I just thought it was interesting," he said with a shrug. "I didn't think butchers did the skinning themselves."

"Most don't. But da insisted on cutting most of the middle men. He hired people to hunt and get the carcasses over to us. He tries to give the best that the customers could find," she said with a bright smile, obviously proud of her family's business. As she allowed her mind to roll on in the memories, her smile disappeared and was replaced with a somber expression.

"Could you smile again?" Daryl asked, suddenly looking at Terrwyn as if she were the most interesting person in the world. Terrwyn furrowed her brows, wondering what the hell he meant with that. It wasn't as if her smiling would make her mood any better. But then she realized what he might be looking for by asking her to smile. She squeezed forth a rather spurious smile, knowing well that if he was looking for what she suspected.

Daryl instinctively reached out and touched her left cheek. His thumb caressed the dent that had formed when she presented the smile to him. He had seen dimples before; they weren't really a rare sight. But he had never seen anyone who had only a dimple on one side of their face. He moved his thumb so that he could glimpse at it once more. It wasn't particularly deep or anything. But it was fascinating to see someone with only one dimple.

While Daryl was mesmerized by her dimple, Terrwyn took the opportunity and studied his facial features up close. His face was rough looking which made Terrwyn automatically assume that he had been living this kind of life, hunting and surviving out in the wild, since he was born. His eyes were a beautiful shade of blue, although she would never tell him in that in fear that he would be offended by the adjective "beautiful."

Daryl's eyes moved away from the dent in Terrwyn's cheek and they met hers, which had been staring intensely at him for quite a while. As if they were being operated by some invisible force, their faces slowly inched closer until their lips were so close that they could both feel the heat that escaped the other's lips. As if some switched turned within him, Daryl pulled away from her and took a step back. What the hell was he doing? He had brought her out there to blow off some steam. Not to resort to physical activities that would yield steam.

He walked around her and picked up the doe without so much as another word. Terrwyn had been surprised about how their lips nearly met. She took a few deep breaths, intentionally allowing Daryl to walk ahead of her. She reminded herself that now was not the time to get involved with anyone, in any way. She loaded the arrow back into the crossbow and stopped momentarily to pick up the shotgun she had left on the ground in order to use the crossbow. As she was straightening herself out she heard a very familiar noise.

"Daryl-" she began, only to receive an exasperated reply.

"We ain't gonna talk about it!"

"No, that's not it, Daryl there-"

"You best not think we're gonna-"

Daryl had turned around to look at Terrwyn but he stopped mid-sentence when he realized that she wasn't trying to initiate a conversation about what almost happened. There were a dozen Walkers who were heading their way, moaning loudly. He looked at the crossbow which was in Terrwyn's hand and briefly considered trying to take them out. But then it came to him that she was absolutely useless with the shotgun which would leave it up to him to take down all the Walkers, which was not only time consuming but risky.

Daryl put the doe down on the ground, knowing well that he wouldn't be able to travel very fast trying to carry it. Even though it was small for a doe, it still weighed enough to slow him down considerably. As soon as he straightened out, Terrwyn thrust the crossbow at him and he accepted it without a word. He caught her looking at the doe with a wistful gaze.

Terrwyn had only glanced at the doe for a moment but suddenly she found herself trying to catch up with Daryl, who was already making his way back to the prison. She had wanted to fight for the meat but she knew better. It was far too heavy for Daryl to be able to carry and keep up a reasonable speed. If they were lucky, it would distract at least some of the Walkers. She tried to cover more distance by jumping with every other step, her short feet not able to cover the same distance as Daryl's.

It took them almost one fourth of the time they had been out to reach the prison gates. _We really took our time going out._ Terrwyn noted as Daryl called out for someone to open the gates. It didn't take long for the black guy, whose name Terrwyn hadn't yet memorized, to open up the gates and let them in through the double fence.

"Walkers?" Rick questioned, only receiving a nod from Daryl.

"There were a dozen of them in sight when we left," Terrwyn elaborated. Immediately the group members armed themselves and seemed to prepare to shoo the Walkers when they approached.

"Why didn't you take care of them? With those weapons you should have been able to," Lori said, her tone almost accusatory. Terrwyn opened her mouth to answer but instead Daryl took the word.

"She can't do shit with a gun," he shouted. "Ya'all take away her weapons and make her fucking useless!"

"Calm down Daryl-"

"No! I ain't gonna calm down. Because of your paranoia we could have gotten killed. If ya'll hadn't taken her things away, we might at least have had some decent meat to feast on!"

With those words Daryl thrust the rabbit, which had been tied for convenience to a belt of some sorts, at Glenn. He stormed off soon after. Terrwyn received some questioning glances from the group and she sighed. "We got a deer earlier but because of the Walkers we had to leave it behind," she said with a frown. She didn't like to be called useless and up until that moment, she had thought that Daryl was going to avoid saying anything about how worthless she was with a gun. Everyone seemed to be slightly disheartened by the news that they had pretty much ruined their chances of a nice supper by not allowing her to have her items.

When they began to shoot at the Walkers who had finally reached the prison, Terrwyn had disappeared into the prison, making a beeline into her cell.

* * *

**A/n:** thank you to those who reviewed! I'm not sure what the etiquette with how often one should update is, but I believe I'll update whenever I have a new chapter available. Sometimes a day later and I'm sure there will be times where I won't update for a while. Bear with me. Anyways, I fixed some things in this chapter before posting, trying to put at least some of the Daryl we know from the TV shows in the fic. :) It would like to hear what you guys think of the fic so far!


	3. Chapter 3

Terrwyn sat outside, allowing the sun to caress her tanned skin. She had never been much for tanning and such, but spending most of her time in the outdoors or in cars had resulted in her once pale skin to darken considerably. When she first arrived at the prison she had been considerably darker but today she had been directed to the showers by Maggie, one of the farmer's daughters. She had been given some inmate jumpsuits to wear while the women washed her clothes.

After Daryl had flipped shit because of the doe that they had lost, Terrwyn's things had been promptly returned. Although she was happy to have her weapons and duffle bag back, she was still vexed that Daryl had revealed to everyone that she was absolutely useless with guns. She knew that she hadn't asked him to keep it a secret but she had assumed that it was obvious that it wasn't something she wanted everyone to know about. Who would want to appear to be helpless in a world where helplessness would get you killed?

Terrwyn stood up and began searching for the women. As much as she disliked their attitudes, she knew that she had to be civil to them. After all, she was sure that if they tried hard enough, they could convince the majority of the group that she didn't belong there and the fact they hadn't done so was a favor of some sort. She had never been one for trusting people or assuming the best of them, so it was natural for her to think that she was at their mercy.

It didn't take her long to find the pregnant one or the shorthaired one. The two were usually seen together, if the former wasn't with her husband, yakking their heads off about something mundane. They were hanging up clothes on a clothing line made from two poles and a few pieces of rope. Terrwyn approached them slowly, trying to pick up on the conversation.

"I told him that she might as well be surveying the area for another group. But he just wouldn't listen."

"She hasn't done anything yet though, other than going out hunting with Daryl,"

"That's another thing that bothers me. Why would Daryl, of all people, bring in some stranger?"

Unable to listen further, Terrwyn cleared her throat, making sure that the women noticed her presence. They looked her way and then at each other, going silent. She decided that she wasn't going to let their words rattle her. Heck, it would make a lot of sense if she was a serial killer of some sort, at least to them. They were obviously people persons while Terrwyn had no real need to be with others. She had been fine on her own while she was sure that these women would need some sort of company to ease their minds.

"Hi there," she said, offering them her best pseudo-smile.

"Hello," the women said, almost in unison, allowing silence to take over once more.

"I uhm…" Terrwyn frowned; this was far more difficult than she had anticipated. "I wanted to thank you. Don't think I don't know that you have the power to have me kicked out of here. I appreciate that I'm still around," she said, finally settling on humoring them with the notion that they had enough to power to decide whether she would stay or go. It wasn't exactly a lie, more like an exaggeration. They certainly had the power to get others to reconsider allowing her to stay but in the end, she believed that the men seemed to have the final say. It seemed to work since Lori shot her a weak smile.

"It's hard out there. It would be cruel to send you out alone," Carol said. So now Terrwyn was going from being a possible serial killer to being someone who was to be pitied? She couldn't help but frown slightly. Sure, she had brought it upon herself by speaking of them as if they held a higher position than they actually did.

"I survived this long. I'm sure I would have been fine. But it's much better in here," she said, not able to resist the urge to correct her to some degree.

"Carl said that you came from New York?" Lori inquired, finally ceasing the process of hanging up clothes to dry.

"Right, born and raised."

"What are you doing in Georgia then?" Carol questioned.

"I came looking for my brother. After my parents turned there was nothing more holding me in New York. Last I heard from my brother, he was in Atlanta." Terrwyn immediately received a look of pity from the women.

"Surely you didn't walk all the way here," Lori commented, causing Terrwyn to laugh slightly.

"No. As soon as I got out of New York City, I found a pickup that I used pretty much all the way down to North Carolina. From there I've been mostly on foot, although for a while I used a bike. Biggest piece of shit I've ever had to sit on," she said, realizing all too late that they didn't appreciate the last sentence.

Both Lori and Carol seemed to feel a bit better in Terrwyn's company now that she had spoken to them. She was sure that they weren't going to accept her as one of the group though. She hadn't been there with them, gone through the same things that they had gone through as a group and for some people, that meant that outsiders would never be able to be a part of the group. But if she could convince them that she wasn't a threat to them, that would be ideal.

"But thank you, for allowing me to stay here, I really appreciate it," she said, beginning to back away. The women watched as she turned around and headed to another section of the prison yard, the one where her duffle bag was resting against the wall of the prison. She seated herself down next to it and opened it up, only to be greeted with the sight of the chips she had snagged from the trunk of one of the cars she had been scavenging when she met Daryl. She pulled it out and studied it, wondering whether it was going to be as good as she remember chips to be. They surely had gone stale by now but knowing food production in the United States, preservatives had kept the chips edible, despite their condition not being ideal.

Looking around, Terrwyn noticed that Carl was staring at her. She stood up, realizing what had caught his attention. She walked over to him and offered him the bag. "Want to share?" she offered and he nodded, grabbing the bag. "Dad, look what Terry has!" Carl said, waving the bag in the direction of Rick. It didn't take long for Carl to open up the bag and grab a handful of chips. Terrwyn followed suit and grabbed a few chips and carefully crunched on them, taking in the saltiness which had once been the preferred state of her snacks. However, after going on for around a year without the salty and oily snack had severely altered her preference.

"We haven't seen one of these in ages," Rick commented when he finally reached them. He reached down and grabbed a few chips.

"Why don't you go and share it with the rest of the group? I'm sure some of them will be happy to see this again," Terrwyn suggested. Carl nodded before heading off in the direction of Glenn and T-dog. As soon as she was out of his sight, Terrwyn frowned and made a face which indicated that she disliked the chips. They weren't as stale as she had remembered them to be but the saltiness was something she had developed a dislike for. She hadn't even noticed it until she had the chips in her mouth.

She looked at Rick and remembered that she had a question she had been meaning to ask him.

"Rick, I was wondering," she started, catching his attention. "Have you explored the area around the prison thoroughly?"

"We came from the South of the area, so we know that area pretty well and we've explored the area surrounding the highway thoroughly. But besides that, Daryl's explored some of the area while hunting, but there hasn't been any more organized exploration." Terrwyn noticed how his mouth opened briefly but shut again almost instantly. She knew that he was going to ask her why she was asking such a question.

"Well… I was thinking if there was a town anywhere nearby. I mean… You've got food here and medicine, from what I've heard. But there are still things that this prison doesn't have that you need," she said, making sure that she made this about the group, not about herself. "Like clothes. You can't just always wear those clothes and these jumpsuits," she said, motioning towards her striped jumpsuit. "Aren't going to mesh well. It's going to affect the minds of people, being clothed in something prisoners wear."

"What do you mean?" Rick questioned, although he had an idea of where she was going with this.

"Well, it's likely that wearing clothes meant for prisoners will make people feel like a prisoner. Especially if they're in a prison. I'm not saying it will happen, but there's the chance that they will look at authority figures, the ones who keep the order here, as oppressors. It might not cause a revolt, but it could really cause a lot of tension," she said, revealing the fact that she had a fairly sound base of psychology. She had never bothered to actually finish her degree, but she had spent two years taking psychology in one of the many colleges in New York. If it hadn't been for her brother, who had voiced him disdain for organized learning, she would have considered finishing at least one degree.

"Well, there's a town south of here but we can from the south and it was pretty much filled with Walkers. You could try and see if Daryl has seen anything the times he has gone out," Rick suggested. "But you have our full support, if you really think that things could turn ugly," he said, offering her a smile. Carl seemed to like this girl which made it easier for Rick to trust her. Terrwyn nodded and thanked him before she went back to her duffle bag.

She wasn't going to approach Daryl, even if it would mean that she would be able to go on an escapade. From the near kiss to the way he shouted about her lack of prowess with guns, she had a feeling that her presence being thrust upon him would do little good. Whatever had happened between them seemed to be more of a problem to him than it had been for her. Sure, she had also been shocked by her own actions and lack of common sense but he seemed to be angry over it when she was trying to warn him about the Walkers. On top of everything, she was feeling sour over the fact that he told everyone that she had been useless.

Terrwyn dug into her duffle bag, desperately searching for something to keep her mind preoccupied. Until she had her clothes back, she was going to have to find some way to entertain herself. She pulled out a worn out book and she opened it up to where she last left off. The last page she had been on had a drop of blood on it. If she had given it more thought, Terrwyn would have looked at it fondly and recalled how the Walker rattling the car she had been at the time had caused her to plant her face on the dashboard, which led to a severe nosebleed. But she was immediately drawn into the words that adorned the pages of _Cat's Cradle._

She had always had a fondness for literature despite being raised in an environment where reading was a nuisance rather than a past time. Whenever she was working in the shop she would have at least one book on the spot so she could have something to do if business was slow. When the Walkers had taken over, books had become her way of keeping in touch with humanity. They were the ones who kept her company when she felt the bitter loneliness creeping up. She liked the people in the books far better. She had only brought a few novels, most of which she had read at least twice which mean that she was familiar with the characters. She could predict how they were going to behave and what they were going to say. It was far easier than dealing with actual people.

"I heard you were looking for me."

The familiar hoarse voice had caught her off guard, but Terrwyn made it a point to not look up right away. She finished the paragraph where the main character realizes how bleak his situation truly seems and then allowed her eyes to trail up the figure that was standing almost directly opposite of her. She forced herself to stand up so that she was more at level with him. "I wasn't," she answered, marking the page she was now on with a dog-ear. "I was told to ask you about something but I didn't feel like approaching you," she said, practicing her habit of telling things as they were.

She had always had a habit of being painfully candid. She knew how to keep herself from saying certain things, a trait that her brother had forced upon her, but she had never really told an untruth unless she was attempting to manipulate someone. If asked for her opinion, she wouldn't bother sugarcoating anything; she would simply speak her mind. It got her the reputation of being a bitch in certain social groups.

"But I'd like to talk to you about something," she interjected as soon as she realized that he was getting ready to leave. Daryl stopped and looked at her expectantly. _So he isn't going to ask me._ "I was wondering if you know of some sort of towns or settlements around here. Rick said if anyone know about any place that isn't in the south, you'd be the one," she said.

"Nah, I haven't seen any yet," he answered with a shrug. "I did see a road though and a sign, so I'm sure there is one nearby."

This news excited Terrwyn. Whether it was a big place or not, the fact that there was one meant that there were at least a few houses. In them she would be able to find at least a few articles of clothing and she expected to find at least one bottle of alcohol. "Would you point me in the right direction? I mean, when I'm going," she asked.

Daryl was taken aback. Was she planning on leaving them? He had seen her earlier, talking to Lori and Carol and form their expressions, he had assumed that she was actually settling in. This was her third day at the prison and he had anticipated her staying far longer than just three days. Or was it hoped? As much as he hated to admit it to himself, he had recruited her into their group because he liked her. She had been on her own, minding her own damn business. She wasn't mucking about in anybody's business and even after she arrived at the prison she wasn't sticking her nose in anyone's business. At least not more than she was welcome to.

"Leaving us so soon?" he questioned, trying to mask his disappointment.

"Leaving? Are you insane?" she retorted with a titter. "I don't think I ever want to leave this place. For the first time since this began, I feel safe. No, I just wanted to go to town and get some items. Clothes and if I'm lucky, some whiskey," she clarified, causing the corners of his mouth to turn slightly upwards, forming a minuscule smile.

"I'll show you the way," he offered.

"You don't have to, just point me in the general direction-" Terrwyn began to protest.

"Look, Terry. I want to show you the way," he insisted, looking at the blonde intensely. Suddenly he noticed that she wasn't looking directly at him. Her gaze was fixated a little to his side, as if she were looking past him. "I don't know what I did to piss you off, but I am going to go with you."

Terrwyn looked at him, this time resting her eyes upon his face. She contemplated whether she should tell him why she was acting like a child. She could the realization that being upset over him telling them that she was useless with a gun was stupid dawn upon her. They would find out sooner or later and sooner was definitely better than later. "You could have broken the news that I'm useless in a better way," she finally said, fully aware that she was not acting like a twenty seven year old.

"Useless?" Daryl echoed in disbelief.

"When we came back from hunting. You said that they had made me useless. Loud enough so that everyone got the message," she said with a sigh, no longer annoyed at that fact. The more she said something about it out loud, the stupider it became.

"You were useless with a gun and they took the weapon that made you a proficient fighter **and** the equipment you could have used to salvage some of the deer," Daryl elaborated, slightly amused by the fact that she was being childish about something so minor. "You're more useful to me than Lori or Carol is. Fuck, you're probably more use to me than Glenn will be." He meant every word. She had the skillset that was required when dealing with the results of his hunting and how she dealt with Walkers meant that she wouldn't be a burden if they ever got in a tight spot.

Terrwyn smiled, happy to hear those words. Even if it was stupid, it was nice to receive some form of validation from Daryl. It mattered more to her that he approved of her than anyone else. The approval from the others was just a necessity but she genuinely wanted to know that he thought more of her than just some useless woman who needed protection. When he had first tried to persuade her to join the group, she had been slightly offended under the surface because she understood his offer of safety as an offer to protect her. She could survive perfectly fine on her own and she didn't want to become a pity-case in the eyes of others.

It all came together in her mind. She had been so pissed. If she was useless as he had said, she was under his protection and that was something that she didn't want. Someone who needed to be protected. She had taken his comment and put it out of context because she was afraid that that was the reality of her situation.

Terrwyn's smiled rubbed off on Daryl.

"So will we be going?" he asked, eager to get another break from the group. Now that he had a companion who honestly hadn't gotten on his nerves yet he had all the more reason to excuse himself from helping out with the very mundane tasks that were given to him in the prison.

"I'm not going out in these," Terrwyn said, looking down at the striped jumpsuit that she was wearing. They were many sizes too big, since they had originally been designed for male inmates. "My clothes should be ready in an hour or so and I have enough whiskey for tonight," she muttered, trying to find the best time. "Tomorrow morning?" she asked.

"Good," Daryl said, tearing his eyes off of her and looking at the rest of the group. "I guess I better go help while I'm still here," he said before heading off in the direction of Rick and T-dog. As soon as his back was turned to Terry, he wiped the smile off of his face. It felt like the smile that had adorned his face was something private that didn't belong outside of his and Terry's conversation.

Terrwyn watched as Daryl walked away. She caught herself looking longer than she would have liked to admit. She looked around quickly, checking if someone had noticed her gaze. As soon as her eyes landed upon Carol, she seemed to look away all too quickly, indicating that she had seen Terrwyn stare at Daryl. Deciding that no real damaged had been done by being caught staring, Terrwyn opened up her book again and leaned against the wall as she resumed reading.

* * *

**A/n:** Not so much Daryl in this chapter and it's actually shorter than the others have been. But that's okay, the next chapter is sort of becoming way longer than I originally intended. :) Hope you enjoyed!


	4. Chapter 4

Terrwyn was not a morning person at all. The good thing about traveling on your own, at your own pace was that you could decide when you went to sleep and when you woke up. There was no waking up after only a few hours of shut eye to keep watch of the camp and there was no need to plan out where you were going in advance. Terrwyn had always just woken up when she felt it and traveled into the night if she saw fit. But now that she was in a group she had been subjected to hearing the clatter of everyone in the morning which always wound up preventing her from achieving further shuteye.

But this morning was even worse than the first two. Firstly, she had stayed up longer than she meant to, mostly trying to go through all of her stuff and sorting through it. Secondly, she had managed to finish the rest of her whiskey in a far shorter frame of time than she originally intended. That mistake resulted in the pounding in her head, which was threatening to make her cancel her plan of venturing out to find that town with Daryl.

But luckily her thirst for more alcohol and an extra set of clothes was far stronger than the longing to lie in bed all day. She got dressed and picked up her duffle bag, which was now far lighter since she didn't have all of her belongings in it. The previous night she had been conflicted with what she wanted to have with her at all times but eventually she settled with only bringing the things that meant the most to her and that could be useful: the jacket which she had spent many night huddled up in, two novels in which she found her greatest paper friends (_Pride and Prejudice_ and _Slaughterhouse Five_, respectively), the set of butcher's knives she had snagged from the shop, a pipe and some tobacco, and last but not least two extra pair of socks.

In the makeshift sheath resting on the belt around her waist she had her machete for easy access. In the safety of her bra she kept her wallet which held a few pictures that she didn't want to lose but couldn't bear to look at. She was ready for action and more mobile than she had been in ages. Just as she was moving the wallet around in an attempt to position it better she heard someone call out her name.

She sighed and slung the duffle bag over her shoulder, so that she was ready to go. She headed towards the exit of her cell block and was met with an impatient looking Daryl. She offered him an exhausted smile as she passed him. "What took you so long?" he questioned as they navigated towards the exit of the prison.

"It's morning and I was tired," she said groggily. When they got out into the prison yard, Terrwyn noticed that everyone was already up and busying themselves with whatever tasks they could find. "Seriously…" she muttered to herself, surprised that it looked like everyone was a morning person. Perhaps it was one of those dominoes effects that came with being in a group. If one person always got up early, everyone else begun to get up early too.

It didn't take Rick long to approach the two of them as they sauntered towards the exit of the fences that separated them from the Walkers. "Good morning," he said, nodding in Terrwyn direction. "I talked to the others and well, they would appreciate it if you could find some spare clothing for everyone," he said with a smile that expressed his gratitude well. He handed her a piece of paper that had some sizes scribbled on it. Terrwyn chuckled slightly, realizing that it was probably a bigger deal than she had originally thought it was. She recognized that most of the sizes were female though. _Figures_. She thought with a smile.

"We'll try our best to find something in these sizes," she promised. "Although, there's no promise that it'll be something pretty. I'll grab whatever I can take."

"We appreciate it," Rick replied. Terrwyn began marching towards the gate of the fence, not quite realizing that Daryl wasn't following her.

"We might not be back for a while," Daryl announced to Rick who nodded understandingly.

"How long until we should start worrying?" Rick asked, causing Daryl to shrug.

"Not until after a week. We can handle ourselves," Daryl said, making sure that they'd have enough room to travel at a speed that didn't completely exhaust them.

"Let's hope it doesn't take that long," Rick said, stopping himself from patting Daryl on the shoulder.

Terrwyn turned around to see that Daryl was only now heading in her direction. "What took you so long?" she asked in a mocking tone, earning a brief chuckle from Daryl. However, he didn't answer her; instead he marched down to the gates, which had now been opened so that they could easily travel out into the open. Neither of them bothered to look back to say any more goodbyes.

Terrwyn didn't bother to walk by Daryl's side whenever he got a few steps ahead of her. She was the one relying on his directions and she wanted the trip to go as smoothly as possible. At least that was what she was telling herself. For a good hour the two of them remained silent as they navigated through the woods of Georgia. Terrwyn couldn't help but admire the beauty of the woods on occasion. Growing up in the city meant that she saw little of things like woods and actual nature that was not controlled by man at all.

She wondered whether this was the kind of place Daryl had grown up in. He seemed very much at home as he stepped over obstacles effortlessly, as if he had walked that path a thousand times before. It made her realize how different their lives had probably been, pretty much complete opposites. She grew up in the hustle and bustle of the city while he had probably grown up in the serene beauty of the woods.

Busy with her thoughts and avoiding tripping over random obstacles, Terrwyn was caught off guard when something caught her ankle, causing her to fall down. "What the he-" she stopped talking and quickly pulled her machete out of the sheath. She swung the machete swiftly, cutting off the hand that had grabbed her from its owner. She backed up slightly before raising her machete once again.

"Terry?"

Daryl had turned around just in time to see her swing down the machete into the skull of a Walker that was missing the lower part of its body. He walked over to her side and bent down. "You 'kay?" he asked, silently cursing him for not being more attentive. If a Walker was close enough to grab her ankle, it should have been noticed by him. But he had been too preoccupied trying to think of something to say that he had put both of them at unnecessary risk.

Terrwyn's heart didn't have the time to react properly when she had taken action, but now that the Walker was dead it was working hard on making up for not reacting at all. That entailed beating so hard against her chest that she could have sworn that it was about to burst out. She looked at Daryl who had an expression on his face that was a mix of guilt, frustration and concern. "I'm fine," she said, peeling the hand off of her ankle. She couldn't help but notice that it had on what she assumed was a wedding ring. She couldn't help but wonder if this Walker had once been a happily married woman. She pushed the thought away, realizing that it could only lead to disappointing thought. As she prepared herself to stand up, Daryl offered her his hand which she took without a second thought.

"Sorry, I guess I should watch myself a bit better," she said apologetically as she dusted off of herself. She looked up at Daryl who was looking around the area.

"It ain't your fault," he said as they resumed walking. However, this time, whenever Terrwyn began to lag behind he would stop and wait for her to return to his side. She appreciated the fact that he was making an effort to keep her by his side and she began to walk a little faster to match his pace. If they didn't make an effort to act like a team, how were they to survive as a team?

"You sure you 'kay?" Daryl asked, noticing that Terry was rubbing her temple for at least the tenth time. She looked at him with a raised brow, momentarily wondering what he meant. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she said, realizing that he was very likely referring to her temple rubbing. "My head is just killing me." Instead of ridding Daryl's face of the concerned expression, he slowed down slightly. "Did you hit your head?" His concern made her smile and she shook her head. "Hangover. I had a little too much whiskey last night in a short period of time. It's nothing to worry about," she assured him.

"I've noticed you really enjoy whiskey," he said in an attempt to keep the conversation flowing. He was honestly interesting in learning more about her and apparently, having conversations would help with that. Terry laughed at that comment.

"Yeah, whiskey is my poison of choice," she commented. "Sometimes," she began, obviously prepping to tell a story. "Before all this happened, I would just spend whole weekends drinking bottles of whiskey. Mam wasn't too fond of it, but Ryan and I would wreck absolute havoc. We'd paint the town red and beyond," she said with a laugh, obviously fond of her memories of heavy drinking.

"Your brother's name was Ryan?"

"Oh, yeah, that's his name."

"They name him Ryan, a perfectly easy name to remember and you get Terrwyn?" there was an underlying tone of playfulness in Daryl's words. Terry pushed him playfully in turn for that comment.

"I like my name," she protested. "Anyways, since this whole shindig went down, I haven't been able to spend some quality time with whisky. Just a little greet here and there. Probably for the best too. I doubt I'd be very good up against Walkers inebriated," she said, trying to imagine fighting the Walkers drunk. That would have been a mess. She was the kind of drunk who could hardly keep herself standing, the clumsy kind who demanded attention from just about everyone in her room.

"There's the road I was talking about," Daryl said, motioning towards a paved road. Terrwyn didn't know exactly what she had been expecting, but it sure as hell hadn't been a paved road. She had imagined the town to consist of maybe a few houses so she had assumed that he had seen a dirt road. She followed him as they made their way on to the pavement.

"Man, it has been a while since I've seen a road this empty," Terrwyn said after they had been walking on the road for about half an hour. Daryl stopped walking before she could say anything and he grabbed her shoulder. As she was about to open her mouth to speak, he shushed her and pointed forward. There were about five Walkers grouped together a little further of the road. They looked at each other and as if they knew exactly what the other was thinking, they pulled out their weapons and headed closer. Daryl shot down the first walker, which looked like it had been and elderly woman before the change. Terrwyn sped up a little and went a head of Daryl, her machete in hand.

"Hey guys!" she called out. "Party's over here!"

This caught the attention of the Walkers who had begun to wander out to the side and they began heading her way. Luckily they were spread apart, at least a couple of feet between each. She scurried to the one in the front and swung the machete as hard as she could, cutting into the side of the Walker's head, effectively killing it. Almost before she knew it, two other Walkers were down on the ground, arrows in their heads. She went to the last one and swung the machete, slicing through the neck and performing her first decapitation. She turned and looked at Daryl with a grin that was large and proud. She bent down and retrieved the arrows from the Walkers and ran over to Daryl excited.

"Did you see that?" she asked, excited. Daryl nodded, a small smile crawling on to his face. She put the machete back into her sheath and she handed him the arrows. "You're really a talented shot," she said, finally calming down a bit. She was happy that she had been able to demonstrate to him that she knew how to handle herself. However, the part that really made her happy was the fact that they had taken down the Walkers. The two of them, together! And it had taken almost no time at all.

"You were good too. Clean cut and all," he said, giving her an ill-timed pat on the back. Physical affection had never been his forte but he felt that it was something appropriate for the situation. He couldn't help but admire the dimple that appeared on her face as she grinned like an idiot. This woman was such a puzzle to him. In many ways, she still acted like a child but she also demonstrated that she knew how to take care of herself. She was so much stronger than she looked and he had a feeling that the longer he knew her, the more she would continue to surprise him.

She hadn't noticed right away that Daryl was paying any special attention to her, but once she did she couldn't help but think about the kiss that nearly happened. Immediately her smile disappeared and she moved away from him, taking a few steps forward. She couldn't help but think about how he hadn't wanted to talk about it afterwards.

"Uhm, I'm sure that the town isn't too far from here. You know, small group of Walkers," she said as she began walking again, leaving Daryl to look at her slightly confused. Had he done something wrong? Did he somehow manage to piss her off? He loaded the crossbow and caught up with her.

"Did I piss you off again?" Daryl found himself asking in an offended tone, even though he had decided that he wasn't going to talk about it. "Terry?"

She turned and looked at him. "Oh, no," she began, hoping to excuse herself. "I just… Well, the way you were looking at me reminded me of the other day and… I wanted…" she trailed off, not sure what she meant to say. She didn't want to upset him again? She didn't want to be so close to something like that again only to have it pulled from under her feet?

"Fuck it."

She placed her hands on both sides of his face and pulled him down and she planted her lips on his. Instantly she could feel her heart beating hard against her chest, begging to be let out. But this time it was a beating of pleasuring, contrasting with the beating of fear that had been present in her heart earlier. The kiss, that had started out soft soon turned into a greedy exchange. It was as if an ardent hunger had taken control of the two of them. His hands, which had hung by his side at first, found their way around her. The right one, which had the crossbow in it, rest on the upper part of her back while his left one, that had held the arrows in it, rested on her lower back, slowly pulling her in closer.

They had stood there in lip lock for what felt like forever when Terrwyn eventually pulled away. She let her hands fall down to her side and after a while Daryl followed suit. She took a few steps back, allowing him enough space to pick up the arrows he had dropped on to the road. "We should hurry, try and get to the town before it gets too dark," she suggested as she resumed walking.

"Sounds 'bout right," Daryl said as he took his place by her side.

The next three hours were spent in complete silence. It was as if they had made an agreement that they wouldn't speak of what had happened. It wasn't exactly that they disliked it or anything of that variety. It was more that they didn't know what to do with what had happened. Daryl had no intention on talking it out. He was tired of everyone wanting to talk things through. So if she had no suggestion on what to do about it, he was just going to let it be that way.

As they walked on, Walkers began to appear more often. Luckily they were never in groups bigger than five to six. It took their combined forces under ten minutes to deal with each group of Walkers. It wasn't until the sun was beginning to set that they reached the town. It was a quaint looking town that had a couple of streets and a few buildings that were obviously shops of some sort.

"It don't look like we gonna get much done today," Daryl said, finally breaking the silence which had been dominating their interaction. Terrwyn nodded in agreement.

"We should look for some food and a shelter," she suggested, heading straight for a building that had some sort of sign with illegible writing on it. She hadn't dared to say anything out loud but she had been hungry for quite a while. The silence between them had just become so comfortable, so easy, that she didn't want to sacrifice it to complain that she was hungry.

Terrwyn squinted her eyes as she looked into the doors of the store. She could still see quite a few items in the shelves and she could have sworn that she saw a few bottles standing on a rack in the back. She opened the door and entered the store and she immediately headed for the bottles. She took off her duffle bag and put in a couple of bottles, one whiskey, another white wine and the last a small bottle of vodka.

"You got some messed up priorities," Daryl commented from behind her. Terrwyn turned around to see him standing by the canned goods. She offered a playful smile as she shrugged. She knew that he was right. She should have headed straight towards the food, especially with her stomach constantly growling.

"How does peaches sound for dinner?" she said, picking up a can of canned peaches and gently putting it into her duffle bag.

"Ain't that a little sweet for dinner?" Daryl said, picking up two cans of baked beans and putting it into her bag.

"Well then, guess we should have some more vegetables with dinner," she said, grabbing a can of green beans and a can of yellow corn. "God, I'm starving," she said, finally caving into the growling of her stomach.

"Let's go then," Daryl suggested, looking out of the shop.

They grabbed a few more cans filled with random canned food before they left the shop. Outside it was beginning to get a little darker and there were a few Walkers roaming the streets. Daryl took it upon himself to eliminate the threat while Terrwyn scanned the area for a nice looking place. After he had taken down a total of four Walkers she finally spoke up. "That one looks nice," she said, pointing at a two story house that looked relatively safe.

"Nice enough to play house in?" Daryl remarked, a bit drier than he had intended. She seemed to ignore his remark as she marched on toward the house, leaving him to retrieve the arrows on his own.

Before she opened the door, Terrwyn drew out her machete. There was no way for her to tell whether there was a Walker in the house, although generally people seemed to turn outside of their homes. She opened the door, which was conveniently enough unlocked. Terrwyn could remember locking up the door to their apartment when she left for the last time. It wasn't to keep their apartment safe or anything, because who was going to go in there to steal their things? It had been a force of habit, something that she was accustomed to doing.

As soon as she entered she sniffed the air, trying to find some hint of the signature Walker stink. Deeming the place safe to enter she stepped in and began surveying each and every room.

"Terry?"

She climbed down the stairs, only to meet with the sight of Daryl at the bottom of the staircase. "Just checking if it was clear," she explained as she made her way into the kitchen, Daryl following her. She pulled the assortment of cans out of her duffle bag along with the bottle of vodka. This was the closest she had come to having food in a natural setting since she left her home. This was the first time she had access to plates and an actual table that wasn't designed for people who were serving time for crimes.

"What are you doing?" Daryl asked as he watched her going from one cabinet to the other, pulling out items such as plates, glasses and silverware. She didn't reply right away, instead she carefully placed the items on to the table, causing Daryl to look at her with one eyebrow cocked. Finally she caved in and smiled. "You were the one that mentioned playing house," she said as she began opening the remaining cans that Daryl hadn't gotten to yet. "And I'm not sure how you did it at your house, but we ate off of plates where I come from."

Although he had no intention of admitting it to her, he enjoyed the fact that she was taking the time to set the table, even if it was just for the two of them. This was nothing like what he had grown accustomed to back at home. If anyone bothered to set the table, it would have been done by him and it usually was only set for himself unless Merle was around. But that was completely different from the scene that was now unfolding. Daryl watched as Terry carefully used a spoon to get out her food of choice out of the cans.

"Did ya'll have vodka with every meal too?" he asked, his eyes wandering towards the bottle that was painfully out of place. Terrwyn gave a wry chuckle that indicated that she was hardly amused.

"Well, you know what they say about the Irish," she commented as she poured both glasses about half-full with vodka.

"You're Irish?" Daryl found himself asking. Terrwyn looked at him and nodded. She hadn't realized that her heritage wasn't painfully obvious to people who didn't know what neighborhood she grew up in.

"Well, if you ask the real Irish, I doubt I would count or just barely. My mam was a second generation Irish-American and my da was fresh off the boat when he met my mam," she explained as she carefully poured the juice from the can of peaches into the vodka, creating a hazy mixture that didn't look very appealing.

"That explains a lot," Daryl commented as he finished pouring the content of the baked beans on to his plate. He looked up from his plate and laid eyes upon the drink she prepared. "What the hell is that?" Daryl asked, looking at the hazy mixture suspiciously.

"Vodka and peach juice," she replied, almost offended.

"Don't look safe to drink,"

"Then don't,"

"Fine."

Neither plate looking particularly appetizing, both filled with random food that came from cans that mushed together into unattractive clumps of food. But it was better than most meals that either of them had had in a long time and with the help of the cloudy drink, her meal became better with each sip. By the time they had finished the contents of the cans, both of them had finished the contents of the bottle of vodka. She had taken it upon herself to drink the cloudy drink while he settled with drinking the Vodka dry. Booze wasn't exactly in abundance after the Walkers began to roam.

Both were fairly light on their feet as a result of the alcohol, she noticeable more than he was.

Terrwyn stood up quickly with the intention of cleaning up after their meal. However, due to the manner in which she stood up, she had to steady herself using the table. Daryl stood up in a muc more reasonable speed and went over to Terry. "You 'kay?" he asked. She nodded, pointing at the dishes that were on the table. Daryl let out a loud laugh. She was either taking the whole _playing house_ thing way more seriously than he thought or she was ridiculously neat.

"Good lord. We're staying here for the night and you want to clean?" he questioned as soon as he stopped laughing. "You women are crazy."

She looked at him, her expression a mixture of hurt and amusement. For a moment they just stood there, staring at each other and the next they were once more the puppets of some invisible force that pulled them in closer. However this time Daryl suppressed the nagging voice that told him all the reasons why it was a bad idea. Instead he allowed the desires that were welling up to take him on autopilot.

Their lips crashed violently against each other, as if they were trying to devour each other. They tongues wrestled against each other at first but eventually began slowly exploring the other. Terrwyn had always imagined that kissing a man with as much facial hair as Daryl would be a nuisance but in turn it only made her want him more. _God_, it had been so long since she last wanted someone so badly. It had been even longer since she had felt so want.

Something within Daryl told him to stop, that this wasn't what she really wanted. What would she want with a man like him, anyways? Hell, he wasn't some Prince Charming. Definitely not at all someone that should receive a second glance from a pretty woman like the one his arms held tightly. But he ignored that something, not wanting to ruin yet another moment. In response to the instinct that directed him to stop, he heaved her up and she responded by wrapping her legs around his waist.

He bent down slightly, using his right hand to throw off the things that had been sitting on the table, effectively causing enough ruckus to wake the whole town. That is, if there was anyone in the town. He placed her up on the table, only breaking the kiss momentarily to pull off the tank top that had been keeping her skin from being accessible to his hands. Nothing had felt this right, this easy and normal since he lost Merle, and those were a whole other kind of right.

He broke the kiss once more to pull off the shirt that she had been working at unbuttoning for quite a while. He pulled it off and for a fleeting moment he looked out the window that was directly in front of him, only to pull her up and back quickly up. "Shit!" he said loudly, obviously startled by the sight of a Walker heading towards the window.

Terrwyn looked at the window and jumped slightly at the sight of the Walker. However she quickly came to her sense and she opened the window. She pulled the machete out of its sheath and gripped it tightly. As soon as the Walker reached it she looked at Daryl. As if he understood what he was thinking he walked to the window and pulled the Walker in through it, keeping its front face down on the table. Terrwyn swung to machete and chopped down, managing to decapitate the Walker despite being inebriated.

"Fucking Walkers," he muttered as he pushed the body of the Walker out and closed the window, taking extra care to lock it. "Can't get any privacy," he said, looking at Terry who seemed to be irritated with the whole situation.

"Guess this is what having kids must be like," she remarked dryly, both of them cracking a smile at comparing Walkers to children.

"Maybe we should just… hit the hay," she suggested as she pulled her top back on. "You know, not make any noise."

Daryl shrugged as he buttoned his shirt back up.

"Only one bed though. Queen sized," she informed him. "We're going to have to share if we both want to sleep in a bed."

"Don't bother me," he said with a shrug. "But I ain't gonna cuddle or nothin'," he clarified. Terrwyn laughed as she picked up her bag. She honestly didn't want to stop what they had been doing but the Walker in the window had sobered her up and in all honesty, decapitating a Walker wasn't an aphrodisiac of any sorts.

* * *

**A/n:** I was beginning to freak out earlier. I thought I had broken my "have another chapter ready when you post this one" rule. I had forgotten about this chapter. Anyways, I wanted to thank you all for reviewing and following this story! It really makes me happy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Warning:** This chapter may or may not have some smut at the end. Consider yourselves warned. (It does have some.)

* * *

When he first woke up, Daryl had almost flipped his shit. He had specifically told her that he wasn't going to cuddle, but here she was, her head and hand on his chest. But then he realize that it felt… nice to have her there. He had been damn sure that no woman would ever want him. After all he was foul mouthed, unsocial and far from being good company. He allowed his hand to rest upon her back. This was definitely something he could get used to, especially if it was with Terry.

She wasn't like the other women who he had been around since the Walkers appeared. She just drew him in from the moment he happened upon her sleeping in one of them car sitting out on the highway. He didn't know what distinguished her from the other women, what made her special in his eyes. The way she hadn't jumped at the idea of joining a group or the way she had just kept going about on her business when he had first approached her. Maybe it was something stupid like the dimple in her left cheek.

Suddenly she snorted, causing him to laugh within himself.

"Hey, girl, wake up," he said, removing his hand from her back and nudging her with the other one. "I told ya I wasn't gonna cuddle with you," he said, a bit louder this time around. He watched as she opened her eyes lazily before rolling over, away from him. As he got ready to get out of the bed, he heard a sound that was all too familiar and very unwelcome.

The gunshot obviously caught Terrwyn's attention since she shot up in the bed and almost instantly pulled the machete out of the sheath. She looked at him questioningly, as if she expected him to know what was going on. "I don't know," he said, managing to sound rather irritated. They both stood up and got together their things before they headed out of the building.

"I don't see anything on this street at least," she said before turning down the road. Daryl had been about to protest, thinking that it would be best for them to just get out of there while they still had the chance but she was gone before he could say a word. With a sigh he followed her.

Terrwyn, her head lightly throbbing from the Vodka that she had consumed the previous night, was not at all happy with the situation. She had been enjoying her standard "continuation-of-the-night" dream. Whenever she got drunk enough to be lacking in the decision making department, she was drunk enough to dream all night long about whatever had been going down. Which meant that she had been dreaming about the things that they hadn't gotten a chance to do the previous night.

"What the fuck," she muttered when she saw where the gunshot came from. There was a herd of Walkers. She wasn't sure how many they were, but they were well over the twenty mark. They seemed to be concentrating towards a building and when she looked up she saw why. There were a couple of men sitting on top of the building, both loading their guns and soon the gunshots began raining down on the Walkers.

"We gotta get out of here," Daryl said, grabbing Terrwyn's arm. She looked back at him with a frown. "I thought you didn't stick your neck out for people you don't know!" he said loudly.

That was right. She had told him that she wouldn't stick her neck out of the window for people she didn't know or like. But that seemed harder to do when there were actual people in danger. She had never really been put in a position where she could stick her neck out for someone she didn't know. It seemed wrong to leave those two men on the roof but what else could they do? The four of them combined couldn't take on the herd of Walkers.

"You're right, I don't," she said as they began to run in the opposite direction.

"Hey! Aren't you going to help us?" they could hear one of the men shouting from behind them. She suppressed the urge to look back.

"Selfish fucks!" another voice yelled and before they knew it, the men were firing shots their way.

She tried to pick up the pace, hoping to avoid getting killed by a bunch of pricks who were mad at them for not throwing their lives away in a hopeless situation. Instead of keeping straight, Daryl pulled her back towards the house they stayed in, keeping them out of the two men's line of sight.

"That shootin's gonna attract every Walker within a mile," he said with a serious expression on his face. "They gonna be heading this way right now."

"Well, let's go then!" she said, obviously anxious to get the fuck out of there.

"Didya see the Walkers we had to take out to get here? Those were only on the road. Who knows how many there are?" Daryl said; frustrated with the fact that they might have just delayed their stay for a while and to boot they would likely be cooped up in the house they had spent the night in. It could be worse though, he reminded himself. He could be trapped with someone far more annoying.

"So what? We're supposed to stay here until the Walkers decide to leave them alone?" she challenged with a raised brow. "I don't think they're just going to leave."

"Do you want to walk into your possible death?"

"I don't have anything better to do," she said in an attempt to snap back at him. "Alright, no. I don't want to," she said reluctantly.

"Good, let's get more food in case we're stuck here for more than a few days," Daryl instructed.

The two of them did a quick run to the market and they took everything that was still edible, filling up her bag until it couldn't take anymore. Terrwyn had also grabbed a plastic bag and filled it up with things like Band-Aids and various hygiene products. They had only spent a few minutes in the market but when they reached the exit they noticed that some of the Walkers had walked away from the group that was currently under fire and were roaming the street.

"You good to go?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."

They walked out of the store, each holding up their weapon of choice. Daryl didn't waste any time, instead he immediately began firing the bolts he had at the Walkers while Terrwyn rushed down to take the closest Walkers. Luckily there had only been roughly seven Walkers between them and the house, which was few enough for them to get back into the house within a few minutes. Almost as soon as they entered the house, Daryl began moving a bookshelf that had been in the living room towards the front door. Taking the hint, Terrwyn began putting things in front of the windows so that if a Walker happened to break a window, they wouldn't be crawling into the house and catching her or Daryl off guard.

"Sorry," Terrwyn said when they met at the bottom of the staircase.

"Sorry?" Daryl asked bewildered.

"It's my fault you're stuck in this town. Just because I wanted new clothes,"

"You listen up, Terry," Daryl said, demanding her full attention. "It ain't your fault those idiots decided to shoot at them Walkers. And I wanted to come here, remember? You told me not to, but I did. So quit your whining," he said.

"I'm not whining," she protested although she knew that he was right.

She headed up the stairs, realizing that even though she had checked every room for Walkers, she hadn't checked them for clothes. She headed straight into the closet of the bedroom they had spent the night in and she opened it up. She couldn't help but pick up a nice black pair of high heels that were resting in the bottom of the closet. She took a seat on the bed and she pulled off the boots she had been wearing for the past few months. She picked off the three layers of socks she had on, revealing her small feet. They easily slipped into the heels, which were only about half a size too big.

She had been a glamour kind of girl before the dead began walking. Both her and her brother had always been sharply dressed individuals. Seeing her without at least three different kinds of makeup was something that only her family would see and no one, absolutely no one, saw her without wearing heels after she had turned fourteen. It wasn't exactly vanity that had driven her to dress well and cover herself up with makeup. She had done it because it had helped her feel at peace. She had never really enjoyed looking at herself as she was.

She had put all that behind her when she left New York. She hadn't worn a dress since she saw her father's body reanimated into a Walker. She hadn't worn heels since she last left her home and she had left makeup behind in Virginia, realizing that there was no one around to see the face she had always tried so hard to hide.

Terrwyn chuckled to herself, realizing that she had forgotten all about those insecurities as of late. Looking back she knew that she didn't have any reason to hide behind a mask. Daryl approached her without makeup, without provocative clothing and liked her just fine. Looking back, she really had been a stupid girl. She stood up and took a few steps in the shoes before kicking them off.

"I never got why women wear those things. They look as comfortable as a beartrap."

She had been so preoccupied with her thoughts that she had almost forgotten that she wasn't in this house alone. She smiled at his comment, happy to hear that he didn't view it as a necessity. "I used to only wear shoes like that, all the time. Nobody saw me wearing anything else," she admitted. "You get used to them with time. They get comfortable if you wear them enough."

"You don't look like the type to be walking in those things,"

"I used to be the type. I had almost forgotten until I picked them up again. Now it seems so stupid that I cared about all that stuff. Always looking good and things like that," she said, a titter escaping her lips. "It's funny how this apocalypse has really put things in perspective. Stuff that seemed like the most important things in the world now just seem dumb," she said, standing back up again and walking towards the closet. She realized that she still acted as if some of those dumb things were still important. Like clothes.

"I don't really know about that," Daryl admitted, taking a seat on the bed. "Nothin' much mattered before them Walkers began roaming." It was true; he had never really had anything that meant the world to him. Closest that came to that was Merle but there were a lot of times when Daryl wished that Merle would just disappear. His tough love had really shaped Daryl but at times it had been too tough on Daryl.

Terrwyn pulled out a lovely floral printed dress that was tailored in a very conservative way. She looked at Daryl, trying to think of something to say. But she drew a blank.

Which was worse, living in a world where you cared about things that had no importance whatsoever or living in a world where nothing really mattered?

"Did you like it, life before the Walkers?" she asked, taking a seat by his side. Daryl didn't turn his head, but he shot her a side glance.

"It wasn't that bad," Daryl said. "Nothing good either. Just surviving, much like we're doing now. 'Cept now I get to kill a bunch of Walkers."

"You didn't… do anything with your life?"

"You judgin' me?"

"No… I mean, I was just wondering. It's not like I did much more with my life."

"Do you miss it?" he asked, wondering whether her former life would be preferred over this one.

"Sometimes. But mainly I miss my da and mam. I don't miss the life I was living. Maybe I miss the alcohol binges, but that's about it," she said with a shrug. "But this life has really grown on me. Fighting Walkers, taking care of myself. I've never been this independent before. I'd always rely on someone else to take care of me. I lived with my parents and they housed me and fed me. Whenever my brother wasn't away on his business trips, I spent every waking moment with him and his… business," she said with a sigh.

"Don't think I would have liked the old you," Daryl confessed. If she really had been the girl who needed protecting when he found her, well, he wouldn't have gotten along with her in the long run. It would have been a project that he would have pursued for a while. He would try to protect her and take care of her but she would have gotten along at the prison and eventually not need any help form him anymore. She would have gotten along with everyone else so much better because they could take care of her and be her friend. He couldn't have done both.

"It's awfully quiet," Terrwyn pointed out, suddenly aware that the sound of gunshots no longer dominated the background noise. They both stood up and headed for the window that should have given them a proper view of the street below. The two men were sitting on top of the roof but it seemed that either they ran out of ammo or they were going to wait out the massive amount of Walkers.

"How long do you think until the Walkers lose interest?" Terrwyn asked as Daryl walked away from the window.

"I don't know," Daryl said sounding as if here were ticked off. "Could be days."

Terrwyn sighed as she threw herself on to the bed. Perhaps she had been pampered by always having somewhere to go in the past year but spending all her time in one miserable spot seemed like a very rotten possibility. At least in the prison there was more area to explore and there was always the possibility of actually leaving the premise.

"I can't be that bad." Daryl commented after noticing how she seemed to act like it was the end of the world, causing her to look up.

"No, you're not bad at all!" she said. "I just… I hate being confined in one space with a limited amount of things to do. It's not something I'm used to," she continued, giving out a long, exasperated sigh after she finished. Before Daryl got a chance to reply the gunshots resumed once again. At least the gunshots would keep the Walkers from attempting to get into their house and they would surely save her and Daryl from having to tiptoe around the house.

Deciding that he didn't have anything to do at the moment, Daryl put his crossbow on an end table and he lay down on the bed besides Terry. If those idiots stopped shooting anytime soon, they could speed up the process of the Walkers losing interest. He briefly considered shooting the two men. Hell, they had shot at him and Terry and all they'd done was try to save their own asses. But he eventually decided against it. Shooting with a gun would attract the Walkers to their house and shooting them with bolts would be a waste.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"If that Walker hadn't interrupted us earlier, do you think-"

"I woulda."

There was only a moment of silence before Terrwyn spoke up once more. "Me too." This answer caused Daryl to raise himself up on his elbow and look at Terry. Her eyes were closed but there was a smile on her lips. Now all he could think about was continuing from here they had left off earlier. It seemed like such a dumb thing to think about with a herd of Walkers just down the street. But honestly, he didn't give a shit. It wasn't always that he did things just because he wanted to. Heck, he hardly ever did things for himself.

He leaned down and pressed his lips against hers lightly, trying his best to not startle her. It didn't take her long to respond to him, her tongue gently entering his mouth and soon enough they were tangled up in each other's arms. They weren't driven by the same ardent hunger that had dominated them at first and it wasn't exactly the same as the drunken leap they had taken the previous night.

They paused briefly, both taking off the clothing that covered the upper portion of their bodies. Not being a particular lady's man, Daryl hadn't often had a chance to study a woman's figure so when she had revealed herself for him he couldn't help but explore. His hands caressed every bit of skin of her chest and stomach. While his lips were busy with hers, his hands were gently massaging the soft tissue that belonged to women alone. He had never imagined them to be so soft and fit his hands so… perfectly.

Terrwyn, anxious to proceed, attempted to take of his pants with only one hand. However, she only managed to unbutton them before Daryl took control. He slid right of his pants and she followed his example, taking off her underwear in the process. Greedily she pulled him back down, so that he was once more on top of her. She lifted her head and planted her lips against his.

"You sure this is 'kay?" he asked, looking at her with a serious expression. She smiled at his question. "It's perfectly fine," she said, making sure to not break eye contact. Her left hand suddenly embraced his member and he couldn't help but shudder with pleasure, the way she gently tugged was a whole different sensation than he could ever generate on his own.

Hoping to do some good himself he reached down, hand fumbling slightly to find the velvet lips that belonged to her. After a while he found them, moist and far softer than he had expected. He gently caressed her, taking a few moments to let it soak in what it felt like. "You should…" He looked at Terry who was looking at him pleadingly. He understood what she meant by the look on her face. They both removed their hands and he positioned himself between her legs.

"I uh…" It had seemed like something that he was supposed to tell her, but it was rather humiliating admitting it out loud. She immediately understood what he meant to say and as a reply, she pulled him down into a long, soft kiss. Now reassured, Daryl slowly slid his member into her sheath. He couldn't help but smile slightly when he noticed how she arched her back slightly in pleasure. It didn't take him long to begin sliding back and forth, rocking his hips against hers.

She placed a hand on the back of his head and she ran her hand through his hair; she had almost forgotten how good something like this could be. How good it felt to be a part of someone, even if it were just for a moment, but the moment turned into many moments. The good turned into great. Pleasure became a vast understatement.

"God, Terry," he moaned.

"Da-ryl," she managed to squeeze his name past her lips, but barely.

This man, who seemed to care little about his appearance and what people thought of him, knew exactly how to please her and for a while he was the only person that mattered. Slowly the thrusts began to slow down and deepen. Writhing in pleasure, she dug her fingers into his back as she greedily attacked him with her mouth. She wanted to cry out but she held back, knowing that too much noise would attract danger. They shared one last kiss as he gently pulsated within her; both too out of breath to start all over again so soon. He removed himself and allowed his body to fall down next to hers.

She rolled on to her side and positioned her head so that it was on his chest. He almost told her to get off of him but he caught himself just in time. He had never liked it when people insisted on touching him without his permission or initiative but this seemed right.

* * *

**A/n:** So I hope you guys liked it. I don't know if the last bit was any good, but I did my best. Thanks for all the comments, as always. You guys are awesome.


	6. Chapter 6

"You sure that's a good idea?"

Terrwyn looked at Daryl and smiled mischievously. "Just one glass won't do me any bad," she said, bringing the glass of whiskey to her lips and taking a sip. This was their third day in the house since they had been shot at by the idiots who sat on the roof and even though it had been filled with a lot of good moments it was also starting to get a little old. They had decided that it was finally safe to go out but before they left, Terrwyn had claimed that there was something that she had to do.

She handed the bottle to him and Daryl accepted it hesitantly. He took a sip of it before closing it up and putting it back in the duffle bag. At first he had just figured that she had simply enjoyed drinking, as everyone in their right mind did. It hadn't been until she had poured them alcoholic drinks with dinner four days in a row that he begun to see a very familiar pattern. But it wasn't as bad as it had been back at home. His father had been constantly drunk while she just seemed to be fond of alcohol. A lot of the time.

But it wasn't that bad. He had seen it worse.

He watched as she down the rest of the glass before setting down the glass on the table. "Let's go!" she said as they headed for the door. Daryl had already cleared the door earlier in the morning. As per usual, he had gotten up long before her and he had prepared them to leave. They been away from the prison for four whole days which meant that any longer and Rick would be getting worried about them.

"We should check the store for some clothes. It would be a shame if we came back empty handed," Terrwyn suggested. Daryl looked at her and nodded. He had seen a small part of the shop dedicated to clothes. It wasn't really uncommon for such a small town to have a shop that had both all their food and a bunch of clothes. They headed straight for the store.

"Alright, let's see," she said, pulling up the piece of paper as she approached the clothes. She grabbed as many items as she could, stuffing them into her duffle bag. Most of the clothes were very homely looking, similar in style to the floral dress she had found in the closet. She had reserved that one for herself, making sure to keep it safely folded at the bottom of her bag. It didn't take her long to fill up the big with all sorts of clothes. Shirts, skirts, pants and dresses. She made sure to take a few undergarments and socks along too.

"You can never have too many socks," she said as she inched away from the clothing department. She once more found herself standing in front of the bottles. They had managed to polish down a full bottle of wine and vodka in their stay in this town.

Daryl, who had been keeping watch by the door turned around at her comment about socks. "Common, let's get going," he said, watching as she examined the bottles. She lifted a finger, indicating that he should wait. He turned back towards the entrance and decided that it was best to not say anything. She knew what she was doing.

Terrwyn stuffed another two bottles in her bag, knowing that she might not return to this town for quite a while. "Alright, I'm good to go," she said, joining Daryl by the side. They walked out into the blazing heat that was Georgia in the afternoon. They immediately headed out of the town, both slightly tired of the quaintness that it offered. Playing house had been fun until they realized that they had to clean up in the kitchen if they wanted to feel like they weren't living in filth.

They walked in silence as they trekked back to the prison. Now that they knew where the town was, they were able to figure out a shorter route to the prison and they didn't have to go down the same road they had gone down on their way to the town. Much to their joy, things were oddly calm. There was no sign of the horde of Walkers that had been terrorizing the two men that had been stuck on the roof.

"I wonder what happened to those men," she suddenly said.

"I don't give a damn," Daryl replied. "Hope 'em Walkers got 'em good," he said in a surly manner. As far as he was concerned, those two were dead if he ever saw them again.

"But we didn't see their bodies," she said, her mind on full speed trying to come up with a reason why the men would just disappear.

"They'd be Walkers,remember? They prolly wandered off."

Terrwyn didn't both to challenge his words again. He was probably right. There was no way those two men could have just escaped. If they had managed to escape, they would have likely hunted down her and Daryl since they had refused to help them. She sighed heavily, still bothered by not having seen their bodies or any sign that they had just died. It just seemed like such a weird thing. On top of that there had been no Walkers when they woke up this morning. If it hadn't been such a ridiculous idea, Terrwyn would have theorized that somebody had just rounded them up and transported them to some other place.

"Terry,"

"What?"

"Maybe we should leave things behind."

It was for the best. Even if he did like waking up with her and even if she did make him feel like someone did care, it wasn't right to drag her into his mess. He had been worried that what had gone down between them meant that she would insist on doing something… _Romantic_ but it seemed that she seemed to accept the fact that they weren't going to be anything more than just buddies. Comrades. Besides, what did he have to offer to her? A prison cell and the promise that he might be able to hunt something for dinner?

_Ain't no Dixon who loved a woman good enough to please 'er._

He had given it much thought. He couldn't give her the kind of affection that she deserved. A girl like he deserved a man who could show her how much he loved her and Daryl was sure that he wouldn't ever be able to do that. Even if they did feel _right_ together, they weren't.

Terrwyn wasn't sure whether she wanted to leave things behind. She enjoyed Daryl's company. With him she felt completely at ease. There was no need to try and manipulate him. She didn't have to tell him what he wanted to hear to get him to like her. She didn't feel like she had to hide who she really was from him. Of course, none of that would really change if they decided to leave the sex behind. But she had toyed with the thought that perhaps this could be some sort of… relationship.

"I don't want to leave things behind," she said, deciding to protest his words. Daryl stopped and looked at her, surprised that she had declined his suggestion. He had gotten used to his words becoming law. Nobody in Rick's group questioned his ideas. At least not often, when they did it was about some stupid shit like the Chupacabra. "I'm not saying we should spend every moment with each other and we should act like whatever couples are supposed to act like," Terrwyn began to explain. "But whatever we had back in that town, it was nice. The kind of nice that makes all this more bearable. At least for me," she said.

"I don't have anythin' to give you," Daryl protested, happy within that she was actually trying to fight him about this situation. "I can't promise I'll keep you safe or feed you. I ain't any good, not the kind you need."

"Daryl, why don't you let me decide what I need?" she said, throwing her arms up slightly in frustration. "I don't want you to keep me safe. I can do that myself. I don't need someone who is able to feed me, I've managed to do that own my own since I left New York. Forget everything that a man's supposed to do for a woman. That is **not** what I need," she said, emphasizing the fact that she didn't need him to be a man for her. She wasn't going to say it but she knew that he was man enough, that he would do those things if he could help it.

"I don't _need_ you," she said almost a bit too bitterly for Daryl's taste. "But right now I _want_ to be with you and I don't want to throw it away because you're afraid you can't do things for me."

"Be with me?"

"Yes. Is that so hard to believe?"

Daryl didn't answer, at least not verbally. But he shrugged and looked away, like a child trying to avoid talking about something. It wasn't going to be easy all the time, Terrwyn knew that. He wasn't like all the other guys she had gone out with and he was definitely not the kind of person that you were supposed to want to be with. But she had seen that he could be a nice guy, even though it seemed like he was convinced that he was a bad guy of some sorts. Whatever it was, there was something that had manifested itself in his mind, something that constantly put him down. Of course, she didn't know anything about his past but then again, there had been no reason for her to ask about his family or what kind of place he grew up in.

She figured if it was something he wanted to talk about, he would bring it up. Talking about things he wanted to avoid wasn't going to do her any good.

There was silence as they continued in the general direction of the prison, each of them working through the conversation that had just taken place and the few days they had been spent in the town.

After a couple of hours they finally came close enough to the prison that they could see it. Neither of them had been expecting to see anything out of the ordinary, since when they had left the prison it had been fairly peaceful. But they were greeted with the sight of the prison fences having a double row of Walkers surrounding them. They shared a mutual worried expression as they seemed to stop dead in their tracks.

"I guess that explains where the Walkers from town went," she said, fully away that there were far more Walkers surrounding the prison than they had seen in the town. If she had to estimate, there were at least sixty of them by the fence and from her experience, she had a tendency to underestimate things. They could hear gunshots coming from the prison, indicating that the others were doing their best to quell the problem.

"Looks like they picked up some friends too," Daryl said, his mind on full throttle, trying to work out what they best option was. Going straight to the fence as things were right now was definitely a bad idea. Even with their combined forces, the chances of them getting through the gates without a single bite were slim. But leaving the others to kill the Walkers could take hours and by the time they had killed the ones that were there now up at the gate the shots could have attracted more.

They were going to have to try and distract at least some of the Walkers. If they managed to get them away from the fences then he would be able to shoot them down with the crossbow and Terrwyn would take down some of them without having to be surrounded by Walkers. "I got an idea," he said, promptly pitching the plan he had manufactured in his mind.

"Alright, sounds like a good enough plan," Terrwyn said, feeling that the chances of her coming up with a better plan were minuscule. "Maybe you should have some weapons to use up close, you know, when we decide to head for the gate," she suggested, realizing that they wouldn't have time to get out the handheld weapons before they would go to the gate. Daryl simply just nodded at the suggestion.

Terrwyn threw off her duffle bag, opened it up and reached in with one hand. It took her a while but eventually she pulled up a leather pouch of some sort. She opened it up, revealing a set of butcher's knives. Daryl grinned in amusement at the variety of knives that was presented to him. He picked up the cleaver which seemed to be unusually large for one belonging to a butcher's set. He then picked up a boning knife.

"Best keep one in each hand. Those Walkers ain't just got let us go through easy," he suggested. Terrwyn nodded and picked up the utility knife before putting the set away once again. She closed the bag and put it back on to her back. She watched as he pocketed the weapons she had given him. Her stomach was beginning to twist as she followed him out of the trees, into the open. She had never really been one to confront the Walkers, at least not while there were more than a dozen. When there were hordes she would hide and try to wait them out.

"This is incredibly stupid," she said, looking at Daryl.

"I know," he answered with an almost careless tone.

"We might get bit," she said as they began making their way towards the prison.

"I ain't plannin' on gettin' bit," he retorted loudly, catching the attention of a few Walkers. He stopped and prepped his crossbow. He shot, reloaded, shot, reloaded and he kept on doing so as long as the Walkers kept coming. Terrwyn went a bit further ahead and wielded the machete, effectively taking down whatever Walkers were walking their way that Daryl didn't take down.

She wasn't sure whether she was relieved or stressed about the fact that they seemed to be catching the attention of the Walkers that had grouped around the fence. She could hear the gunshots less frequently, which she took as a good sign. If they didn't have to fire the shots as often that had to mean that the urgency to kill the Walkers was slowly disappearing. After they had taken down a good twenty-something Walkers Daryl appeared at Terrwyn's side, the crossbow on his back and her weapons in his hands. Her heart sank when she looked at the prison fence, which was still surrounded by a lot of Walkers. She wanted to tell Daryl that she didn't think that they wouldn't be able to do it. That even though they had managed to take down nearly thirty Walkers, there was still a lot more waiting at the gate, ones that were more than willing to tear them to shreds.

As if Daryl knew what she was thinking, he placed a hand on her shoulder blade, the boning knife uncomfortably close to her neck. She looked at him with a worried expression only to have it returned with a confident grin. It took her a moment but soon the grin had spread to her face. There was something reassuring about facing a horde of Walkers with someone like Daryl. She nodded as if she was trying to tell him that she was ready to face them.

They began running towards the gates and it didn't take long for the Walkers that had failed to notice them earlier to smell the fresh meat that was suddenly so close to them. They became the obvious preference over the others who resided at the other side of the fences. The gunshots began to pick up once more, helping the blonde feel a bit more at ease. The more they shot, the less her and Daryl would have to kill on their own. But they still had their hands full, slashing in nearly every direction, trying their best to avoid the hungry bites of eager Walkers.

Instinctively Daryl couldn't help but keep one eye on Terrwyn. He knew that she didn't want to be protected and he was well aware that there wasn't much he could do for her while they were fighting off at least two Walkers at all times, but he was still worried. He wondered whether the whiskey she had consumed had any effect on her ability to bust open Walker heads. Whenever his eyes wandered towards her he could see no sign that there was anything holding her back. After a while he began to worry less about her, more confident in her abilities as the time passed by.

"Rick, you better open that damn gate when we get to it," Daryl shouted loudly as he stabbed a Walker in the eye with the boning knife and split the head of another with the cleaver.

They were only a few feet away from the gate when it happened. She had stabbed a child Walker straight down in the head with the knife and she had just finished decapitating another when she felt a sharp pain in her right hand. "Fuck!" she cried out, instinctively swinging her left hand at the source of the bite, going straight into the Walkers head. She didn't stop defending herself against the Walkers but her eyes were always on her right hand which was now covered in light red liquid.

* * *

******A/n:** Originally there was going to be more in this chapter, but then I decided that it would be too easy to show what happens next right away. Anyways, thanks for the reviews, as always. You guys are great. 3


	7. Chapter 7

"You 'kay?" she heard Daryl ask, glancing her way. He had heard her cry out but he couldn't see any visible injuries.

"Fine, let's just get the fuck into that gate," she said, splitting the head of a Walker open. It only took them a few more minutes to get all the way up against the gates. The second gate was already open and T-Dog was scurrying to open the one that Daryl and Terrwyn were leaning against while they fought of the Walkers that still came at them

And then the gates were open and they stumbled in. The shots were now aimed at the gates as T-Dog and Daryl were working on closing the gates. Terrwyn kept on chopping at the Walkers that had gotten through the gates, thankful that the bite to her right hand hadn't crippled it. She would at least be able to be of some use before they had to put her down.

When they finally managed to close both gates Terrwyn dropped her weapons.

"I can't believe you guys! Do you know how stupid that was?" an angry Lori said loudly, approaching the gates where Daryl, Terrwyn and T-Dog stood.

"It's all good, we ain't bit," Daryl said, looking at Terrwyn with a smile. But he could tell right away that something wasn't right. The look on her face, the one of absolute terror told him that he was wrong. "Right, Terry?" he asked, making sure to emphasize right. The weapons on the ground in front of her made him fear the worst.

"I'm sorry," she said, revealing her right hand that was now covered in blood.

"Fuck!" Daryl cried out in anger.

"You got bit?" Rick asked, rushing to Terrwyn who nodded feebly. Everyone seemed to quiet down and just stare at her.

"Rick, you said we all had the virus, right?" Daryl mused. Rick looked at him and nodded. "If we all got it, don't that mean the bite just kills us?"

"I guess so," Rick replied, not sure how this was helping.

"Wait, so maybe the bite is like an infection?" Glenn suddenly suggested.

"And it spreads through the body," Rick said with a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Hershel, you gotta take off her hand!" Daryl almost commanded the farmer. He was the closest thing they had to a doctor.

"It might not work… She could bleed out or it could be too late," Hershel said, approaching Terrwyn and looking at her hand.

"Ain't gonna matter. If you do nothin' she's gonna die anyways!" Daryl shouted.

"I- I don't have the utensils I'd need to do it properly," Hershel said with a shaky voice.

"What do you need?" Terrwyn asked, pulling her hand away from Hershel's curious fingers. She took off her duffle bag and pulled out the butcher's set. "I got a skinning knife, utility knife… Daryl has my cleaver and boning knife. I also got a pair of game shears and this here butcher saw," she said, showing him the equipment she had. If taken off her hand would mean that she would survive, she was willing to give it a shot.

"This will do to take off the arm. Don't know if there is the proper medicine to-"

"What are you waitin' for?" Daryl asked impatiently.

Terrwyn handed Hershel the set, putting in the utility knife. Daryl pretty much shoved the knife and cleaver into the leather pouch that kept the set. Hershel looked at Terrwyn with a pitiful expression. "This is gonna be mighty painful. We should see if there's some sort of anesthesia available-"

Terrwyn pulled out one of the three bottles of whiskey she had in her possession. "How will this do?" she asked.

"That should do if you-" Hershel didn't need to finish the sentence, Terrwyn had already begun to chug the whiskey. She followed him into the prison, dragging her duffle bag along. By the time they were in the mess hall she had managed to down three fourths of the bottle, demonstrating just how _Irish_ she was.

Soon the pain of the bite began to wear off and her cheeks grew warmer. This sensation was something that she always loved. The part where you were just drunk enough to not feel a thing, careless enough to say things that are on your mind and you feel like a princess. "Better for me to be in a group," Terrwyn mumbled before laughing. "You were right, Daryl. Look where being with a group brought me. A week in and I'm having my hand amputated," she said, leaning down on the table where her hand rested, promptly passing out.

"What'd she say?" Daryl asked, leaning towards Hershel.

"Couldn't understand her," Hershel lied. Soon he began barking out commands. He needed them to try and find a bowl, some string and needle so that he could stitch her up when he was done. "I am going to need something clean to put under her arm," he said, looking around the area in hopes of seeing some clean fabrics.

Daryl quickly opened up Terry's bag and pulled out a few items of clothing. "Will these do?" Hershel nodded. "For now," he said, placing her arm on the white shirt that was sitting on the top. "Does she have any more of that alcohol in that bag?" he asked. Daryl looked in the bag and pulled out another bottle of whiskey. Carol returned with a bowl which Hershel poured whiskey into and he dipped the utility knife into after having wiped it on a skirt that Daryl had handed him.

"Maybe we should leave," Rick said, looking at the rest of the group. "I don't think it'll help Hershel if we stand over him," he said, looking at Daryl specifically.

"I ain't leavin' her. 's my fault she got bit," he protested.

"Daryl, you'll be doing more bad than good if you just stand over him," Rick said, placing a hand on Daryl's shoulder.

"Get the hell off of me!" Daryl said before finally taking Rick's advice and leaving the mess hall. When he got out of the prison he was greeted with the sight of Carol. She looked up and the expression on her face said it all. She felt sorry for him.

"I'm sure she'll be fine," she said in an attempt to be reassuring.

"You bet your ass she'll be fine," he snapped without any reason at all. Here Carol was, trying to give him reassurance and he was snapping at her. "She's tough. Been out on her own for a long time," he said, not quite sure whether Terry had actually told anyone about herself or where she had come from.

"I know. She told us that she had come down here from New York."

"She said it was a dumb idea, but she still followed me," he said, allowing the guilt to seep in.

"Daryl, it's not your fault-"

"Yes it is!" Daryl retorted. "What if she becomes one of them too?" he turned away when Carol reached out to touch him. "I ain't no use to anyone," he muttered, walking away from Carol. She watched him as he picked up a gun and began shooting at the Walkers who were at the fence, still trying to get in.

* * *

What if it didn't work? What if the bite was enough to kill her and taking off her hand didn't help at all?

Rick had coerced Daryl into staying out of the prison, at least during the day. Said it was bad for him to just sit around, waiting for her to wake up. Daryl felt that it was bullshit that it wasn't any worse than him standing outside and waiting for her to wake up. He had wanted to make sure that she did and if she suddenly came back a Walker, he wanted to be the one who would take her down. After all, had he not insisted on fighting through the horde they wouldn't be in this situation.

He was sharpening the items that belonged in Terry's butcher's set. It was more than luck that she happened to be a butcher's daughter; it was a potential life saver. He put away the cleaver and picked up the boning knife and he began sharpening it. He had been trying to occupy himself all day and he was beginning to run out of things to do. He had seen people look at him and some of them even began to approach him, most of them deciding against it once he shot them a glare. It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to them, not exactly; it was just that he didn't want to hear what they had to say.

What if they were there to tell him the bad news?

"Hard to not think about the possibility, isn't it?"

He looked up to see Carol. He wasn't as annoyed to see her as he would have been under normal circumstances. He hated when she would go about, feeling sorry for him because he usually felt like there was nothing to be sorry about. But the pity he had received from her the previous day had been a welcome kind. Her telling him that it wasn't his fault made him feel better. Of course, it could be that she had just been returning the favor, after he had said those nice things to her when Sophia was still missing, but he could understand what she was thinking.

"Ain't hard if I got something to do," he said, looking back down at the knife he held in his hands. "Hard findin' something worth doing, though." He could see Carol take a seat next to him from his peripheral vision.

"I can see that she's special to you. Anyone can tell by the way you were shouting yesterday," Carol commented, receiving a apathetic _so_ from Daryl. "But you can't blame yourself for what you happened, even if it was your idea to go in."

Daryl looked at Carol once more, this time a more solemn expression on his face. "Don't want to blame her though, ain't like she tried gettin' bit," he said.

"It's not anyone's fault. We can't blame anyone for getting hurt. Things just happen."

* * *

The first thing that Terry did when she woke up was empty the contents of her stomach over the side of her bed. She had never felt so hung-over in her life. She tried to recall the events of the previous day, coming up with very little after her and Daryl had decided to fight the Walkers surrounding the prison. She tried hard to remember when she had begun consuming the whiskey but she couldn't pinpoint it exactly. She knew she hadn't been drinking when they began killing the Walkers, so it must have been some sort of celebratory drink.

She slowly sat herself up and sighed, rubbing her head with her left hand. She looked around the room, surprised to see a bucket by her bed. Had she been sick all night? Her face contorted at the thought of everyone in the group being aware of the fact that she had been drunk enough to puke her guts out. She noticed her duffle bag sitting in the corner of the room. She smiled to herself, remembering the fact that she still had the dress. She stood up, getting ready to go and get the duffle bag but had to sit down almost immediately; getting hit by some invisible wave. She groaned in frustration, allowing her head to rest in her hands.

Except there was something wrong, her head only rested in one of her hands.

"What the fuc-"

As soon as she saw her hand it all began to come back to her. At least everything that had happened before she had started chugging the whiskey. She had been bit and someone had suggested that taking off her hand could save her from turning. Well, she was alive, that was sure enough. _So far, so good. _She thought to herself, still rather shaken by the fact that she suddenly didn't have a right hand.

She wondered whether her mother could have been saved by amputation. She had been bit on the ankle by one of those crawling Walkers. If they had known back then that amputation could prevent the person from dying, would her family have survived alongside her, in search of her brother? The more she thought about her family, the more her eyes welled up and after a while the tears were running down her face as if they were in a race with each other. Eventually she was just plain and simply crying, both out of joy and out of pain.

She was alive.

"I'll go get Daryl."

Terry tried her best to choke back the tears. She wiped her eyes using the pillow she had been laying on, trying to use her right hand a few times in an attempt to grab the pillow. She could feel someone sit down by her side and pull her into a hug. She could tell right away that it wasn't Daryl, that it was a woman who held her. She wondered which one of them liked her well enough to offer her comfort.

"It's going to be alright," the woman promised and Terry didn't recognize the voice, which meant it was neither Lori nor Carol. She pulled away from the woman's arms; too curious about who she was to stay there any longer. She attempted to smile at Maggie, most likely winding up awkwardly moving both corners of her mouth and not forming a smile at all. Suddenly Maggie's boyfriend, Glenn, appeared at the entrance of Terry's cell.

"You're awake!" he said, looking as if it were a relief to him.

Had they actually been worried about her? Terry wondered. She had only been with them for about two whole days before her and Daryl left for the supplies and she had been sure that few, if any, of them liked her. But Maggie sitting next to her and Glenn standing at the entrance of the cell told her a completely different story. "Hershel, she's awake!" Glenn said, turning backwards.

Ah yes, the old man. He had been the one entrusted to amputate her hand. Terry looked at the now stub where her right hand had once rested upon. It didn't hurt too bad, not enough for her to notice when she woke up first thing. He seemed to have only taken as much as he needed to- only taking up to her wrist. She looked up as the old man walked into the cell and she could've sworn that she saw a victorious smile on his face.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, his expression turning serious once more.

"Head hurts, woozy when I tried to stand up… Pretty much just hung-over," she answered, trying to calm the hiccups that were still left from her sobbing earlier. She thanked herself for having been able to stop the worst of the sobbing so soon.

"Try and keep an eye on the limb," he warned her with a serious expression. "We don't want it to get infected, so make sure to not get it dirty and maybe clean it on a regular basis, alright?" Terry nodded, not wanting to go against his orders. After all, what good would she be able to do if she had to have more of her right arm amputated? She'd be a good for nothing burden on all of them. Hell, if she did get an infection serious enough that she would need further amputation, she'd rather just go out with a literal bang.

She could hear footsteps from out in the hallway. They weren't relaxed or taking their time. Whoever owned the footsteps was in a big hurry. Soon the owner appeared, looking eager to see what was happening. Maggie promptly stood up, shooting a smile towards Terry before leaving, ushering her father out along with her.

"You're awake," he said, a smile spilling on to his face.

"I sure hope so. Otherwise this would be a pretty messed up dream," she replied, holding up her right arm which was now missing a hand. Daryl took a seat next to her on the bed and he grabbed her left hand.

"You better not get bit again. We were lucky this time."

Terry nodded with a half-hearted smile. "I don't plan on getting bit. Ever again," she said after a while of thought. She decided to leave out the part where she was going to promptly end things if she ever did get bit again. Waking up without a limb was terrible and confusing as hell at first. She looked at Daryl, who seemed to be focusing on the stump at the end of her right arm. At least he didn't get bit. He seemed like the type who couldn't take being bit. He wouldn't have anyone chopping off any of his body parts.

"How are you feeling?" Daryl asked, still slightly worried that the amputation hadn't worked. He expected the worst, which meant that there were a dozen scenarios in his mind how the procedure would not save her.

"Hung-over," she answered truthfully.

"You really did down that whiskey bottle down like… no one I've ever seen before," he said, a slight chuckle escaping his lips. "But no fever or anything, right?"

"Nope. No signs of Walkers sickness," she said, realizing that he was checking her for symptoms of the flu that was the predecessor to become a Walker. She had witnessed the flu firsthand when her mother had gotten bit. It had begun with simple enough- the was only an innocent fever that kept her cooped up in her bed. Not long after she had begun to get chills that had resulted in her being covered in blankets. Terry could remember trying to help her mother get even snugger, which had been practically hopeless.

The worst part had been the hallucinations. Neither Terry nor her father knew what he mother was seeing but she went from talking to someone who wasn't present to screaming loudly for something to get away. She had wanted to put her mother out of her misery but her father had insisted that she was just sick and that she would get better. He couldn't have been more wrong.

"I'm sorry, Terry."

She turned her head, looking at him with a surprised expression on her face. _Sorry?_ Was he trying to apologize to her for her getting bitten? She managed to contain the laughter that was threatening to surface. As much as a hard ass as he was on other people, he seemed like he was even more of a hard ass on himself. At least, he was if he was blaming himself for her not paying enough attention.

"It's okay," she replied. "I am a dumbass a lot of the times. But you don't need to feel bad about it; I've managed to survive so far while being a dumbass. I'm sure I can pull at least another year," she said, winking at Daryl as he looked at her. She had considered telling him that it wasn't his fault but she was sure that someone else must have told him that he wasn't to blame. Putting the blame in its rightful place, on her, was the only thing she could do.

He didn't know how to react at first simply because he didn't realize right away what she had been talking about. After the words had registered and he had managed to sort through them he cracked a smile and chuckled.

"Good, 'cause it ain't good for my reputation if my woman can't stay alive."

_His woman_. So at least some good had come out of her getting bit by a Walker. Whether it had been her performance that had convinced him or the fact that she had almost become a Walker herself, something had managed to convince him that it wasn't a bad idea to at least give it a chance.

"I think I should lie down again. I don't really feel well," she said, a sudden wave of nausea running through her body. It didn't take Daryl long to stand up so that she could rest on the bed. He got ready to leave, only to be stopped by her voice.

"Would you mind… staying here? Unless… You have something to do that is." He nodded, taking a seat at the end of the bed that she was in.

* * *

**A/N: **So I might not be able to update from Friday to Sunday. I'll try to squeeze in one tomorrow morning but I'll be busy over the weekend. I will try my best to update on Sunday evening OR Monday morning. I just figured I'd give you all a fair warning, since I've been updating daily since this story started. Thanks for the reviews, as always! You guys are awesome!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:** Friday update at two in the morning! I really wanted to keep the not posting for a day to a minimum so I squeezed this one in! Thank you guys for being so lovely and reviewing. 3

* * *

They had been out for the past five hours, waiting for something to show up to him to shoot. So far, there was little luck. Daryl looked at Rick momentarily before he began scanning the area once more. So Terry really had been a lucky presence. Either she was or Rick was scaring all the game away, which wouldn't be much of a surprise to Daryl. He had wanted her to come along with him but she had protested, saying something about only being in the way. He didn't know what the hell she was talking about being in the way and all. He sure as hell enjoyed having her around, whether she was in the way or not.

"You two better be careful."

Daryl looked at Rick again, this time looking slightly offended that Rick was trying to tell him what to do. "Wha'd'ya mean, better be careful?" he retorted, lowering the crossbow.

"You don't want to bring a child into this world, do you?" Rick said, revealing what he had meant with being careful. He didn't know how far things had gone between Daryl and Terry but he had to be blind to not notice that there was something between the two. It had been obvious from near the beginning that there was chemistry between the two. She hadn't been quite so obvious but the fact that Daryl had brought a stranger in had seemed strange enough. If it was something that made Daryl happy, there was no reason to try and ban them from being together. Maggie and Glenn had found each other; there was no reason to keep Daryl from having someone.

That had been one of the last things that Daryl would have thought about. They hadn't taken any precautions at all in the town. There had been no time, at least not while they were in the middle of things. There had been such an urgency to get comfortable with each other that neither of them thought of it. At least, Daryl hadn't. Rick was right; he didn't want to bring a child into a place like this. Hell, he didn't even know if he had ever wanted to have children of his own. After growing up in the environment he had, he never thought of the possibility of having a child. The prospect of finding someone that would love him had seemed bleak enough.

"Guess you're right," he finally answered. "Won't do us any good havin' to take care of two lil'uns."

"How is she handling the amputation?" Rick asked. He had been curious about how she was doing after having her hand removed but he had noticed that she obviously didn't want anyone to approach her about it.

"'Kay, I reckon. She don't want to talk about it, really," Daryl answered.

"I doubt anyone would want to talk about that, at least not at length."

"Damn straight. Don't think she feels good 'bout it though. Refused to come huntin' with me today. Sayin' she'd just be in the way," he said, deciding that it wouldn't be too bad if he actually confided in someone. She had told him what it felt like, not having her hand. How she suddenly experienced. She talked about something called a phantom limb, not that he had ever heard of that before. "Pissed me off. She ain't useless just cause she ain't got her right hand. 'S like sayin' you'd be useless without a leg. Won't be able to do as much, but don't mean you can't fire a gun or be of use."

Rick wanted to say something to Daryl, tell him that this was something that was completely normal. But what did he know? He couldn't remember knowing anyone that had gotten a limb removed, which meant that he didn't know what to expect from their behavior. The fact that Daryl was telling him this made him feel a bit better though. Her presence was either changing Daryl or bringing out traits that he had seemed to lack before. Rick had heard of Daryl telling stories about himself, but there seemed to be a limit to the things that he was willing to share. This being one of the things Rick would never have imagined him to share.

"I'm sure she just needs time to adjust. It's-"

Rick quieted down as soon as he noticed Daryl pulling up the crossbow. He directed his attention away from the hunter and scanned the area. He had managed to catch a glimpse of a white tailed buck before the arrow was shot, hitting the deer behind the shoulder. As it began to run, Daryl stood up and Rick followed his lead.

* * *

The attention was driving Terry crazy. Whenever she would lock eyes with the members of the group she could see their pity, their worries that she had not fully recovered. The way that some of them went out of their way to make pleasant conversation with her bothered her, because she knew that had she not had to sacrifice her hand to get her and Daryl back into the prison, she wouldn't be receiving the pleasantries.

"Looks like you're going to have to relearn everything you knew with your left hand now."

Terry looked away from _Pride and Prejudice _only to see Lori standing there with a smile that had mixed friendliness and pity in it. Terry made a dog ear on the page before she closed the book. Even if she didn't like the fact that they were talking to her because of pity, she knew that sending them off was not a good idea. Daryl had been the one to get away with being rude and a loner. Her following suit might result in negative opinions on their relationship.

"Not really," Terry said, having received this comment from Hershel before. Coming from him it had been a lot less tiring to hear since he had been the one to amputate her hand. "I'm the lucky ten percent that gets to be left handed. So I can still function properly if I'm only doing things that require one hand," she explained.

"Oh, I see. I guess I didn't think of that," Lori said, now trying to find some other way to steer the conversation. "You know, you're always welcome to come and talk to us. We don't bite." It took Lori only a moment to realize her poor choice of words. "I mean, I know we didn't exactly welcome your or anything before, but-"

"You don't have to feel bad about my hand," Terry interjected, not being able to listen to more of Lori's speech. "Hershel took the time and removed it, saving my life. If you guys owed me anything, which you don't, then that was enough to pay the debt." For a moment, Lori seemed to be offended by Terry's words. Terry watched as her expression turned from annoyance and into apprehension. So maybe Lori hadn't realized what she had been doing. Maybe she had been genuinely driven to come and talk to Terry but once pointed out what was going on she seemed to get the message.

"You're still always welcome," she said before turning around and heading off. Lori had briefly considered telling the girl off but the idea had been quickly dismissed. She was right to point out that it had been her hand, or lack of one thereof, that had driven Lori to speak to her. Before she had left for the town with Daryl, Lori hadn't given any thought to her that wasn't a theory that somehow she was dangerous.

So maybe she had been a little harsh on Lori. Too honest about what she thought was really going on. But she saw no reason for her to just sit there and allow them to befriend her because they felt sorry for her. She would much rather prefer to them befriending her because they wanted to, not because they were obliged to. Maggie was one of the people that Terry had begun to appreciate. She had been the first one to be there for Terry when she woke up but there had been no looks of pity, at least not any that lingered too long for Terry's taste.

"Hey, open but the gates, dumbass!"

Terry immediately stood up at the sound of Daryl's voice. It didn't take her long to go to the gate and from the looks of it; Lori and Carl had been waiting for Rick to return too. They were dragging a sizable buck, much larger than the doe that her and Daryl had managed to get when they went hunting. She watched with a smile as Carl approached them, excited by the fact that they had managed to land such a large meal.

"Looks like we're going to have a feast tonight," she said as she approached the men. There was no reply but she received a crooked smile from Daryl. Everyone seemed to gather around the catch and they were all eagerly chatting about the meal that they were going to have tonight.

Terry ran off, realizing that she had the exact things needed to prepare the meat properly. She smiled to herself, knowing that she could be of some use. The only person besides her who knew how to skin, gut and take care of an animal carcass was Daryl which meant that she had something that the others didn't. It didn't take her long to run into her cell and fetch the leather purse that had all of her equipment. Daryl had returned it after she had managed to sleep through the after effects of being hung-over and having her hand amputated, each piece of the set carefully sharpened.

"Took ya long enough."

"Nice to see you too," she remarked dryly, before laughing it off.

It seemed that the excitement had worn off while she was getting the butcher's set ad everyone had returned to their usual business. It was just the two of them left to deal with the buck. Terry didn't mind, having someone else trying to deal with the business of preparing the meat would be more of a hassle than help. On a few occasions her father had hired a new employee at the butcher's shop, much to Terry's dismay.

"_Are you fucking stupid?" She hit the employee-in-training in the head, catching the attention of everyone in the shop. A man in his forties, with thick red hair approached the blonde, who looked to be too high maintenance for a butcher's shop. The boy who was being trained seemed to be on the verge of a meltdown, having been verbally bullied by his trainer for the vast majority of the day. "Da, look at this idiot," she said, showing the red headed man the carcass of a rabbit. "He can't even skin a rabbit properly!"_

The memory, which had popped up almost unexpectedly, made Terry feel bad about how she had treated the poor boy. She had been hard on everyone that had been employed at her father's shop, usually resorting to humiliating them in front of the customers. At the time she had told herself that she had been looking out for the family business but in retrospect it was just her putting down others because she knew how to do something better or because they did things in a different had been an ass.

"Ya don't look too happy."

It was Daryl's comment that finally got her to snap out of her thoughts. She looked at him and realized that she had completely spaced out. "I was uh-" she paused, searching for the correct term. "Recollecting," she said, deciding that reminiscing was too positive for what she had been doing. They set up the buck so that it was ready to be skinned and taken care of.

"You didn't like your work?" Daryl asked, assuming that it had something to do with being a butcher. After all, they were getting ready to do exactly what she had done for a living.

"I loved it!" Terry protested in her defense. "I was just thinking how much of a pain it had been when da hired new employees," she said with a shrug. "Most of the time I was supposed to train 'em. Usually they were young men, the kind that couldn't find a better job. Da figured that since they were young men, they'd listen better to me. Most of them were-" she paused, realizing that if she would go with the word choice she had in mind, she wouldn't have changed much. "They didn't have a clue on how to do anything. I gave them all a real hard time; most of them never even finished training."

She had expected Daryl to say something about what a mean thing that had been to do. That's how most of her friends at the time had taken it. But much like her brother reacted, he laughed about it. _Of course, he isn't really the most gentle person himself._ She reminded herself.

There was something about the image that formed in his head that was hilarious. This girl, who was a whole head shorter than him and had such a friendly face, had been a complete bitch to a bunch of boys because they didn't know how to slaughter an animal. That, coupled with the fact that she had indicated that she had been a high-maintenance sort of girl, created a comical scene in his mind.

"It's not funny. I was terrible to them!" Terry objected.

"I can just see ya, with the high heels and that pretty face o' yours, shoutin' at the poor boys."

"Hey, I was scary, okay?"

"Oh, I bet you were. Ain't nuthin' funny 'bout a lil' lady like yourself teachin' some boys a lesson in butchery."

Terry didn't even dignify his words with an answer; instead she began a lousy attempt to skin the deer with her left hand and the stump that was her right. It definitely wasn't the same and she would often quit for a few moments and muttered things in frustration. Not being able to do something she had been doing for years was more frustrating than she could have ever imagined. When she had agreed to having her right hand amputated, she hadn't thought about the effects it would have on butchery. It wasn't like they were always going to have something to cut down. It was a miracle that they had found the buck so soon after finding the doe.

Daryl watched her, careful not to impose on her. It seemed important to her that she keep on skinning the buck. The way she would grunt and quit when she was having a hard time was amusing in the most depressing way. He sure as hell wouldn't want to lose his hand. He wouldn't be able to do the things he enjoyed the most. Hunting with the crossbow, making bolts… His mind wandered and he wondered how her lack of hand would affect things between them.

"This is useless. You do it."

The skinning knife was shoved at him and she began to walk away.

"Didn't think you were the type to give up," he said, loud enough for his words to carry quite a distance. Terry turned around, a look of pure frustration on her face.

"I'd like to see you do things with only one hand."

"I ain't sayin 's easy," Daryl said, approaching her as she stood still. "Hell, I wouldn't want to try. But you did."

"And I failed, Daryl. I can't even skin the damn thing because of this useless stub." The pain in her eyes was evident. Daryl hadn't thought so far along the road. He had wondered whether she would live and whether it was just stalling. He had never thought about what it would be like; he hadn't even given a second thought to how she would be able to do things that she had been doing her whole life. He felt dumb, he had only been thinking about things from his side of the matter. He hadn't thought about how it would affect her.

He reached out and grabbed the _useless_ stub that she seemed to despise. There were things that she wasn't going to be able to do properly without her right hand, even if she had been fortunate enough to be left-handed. Many of those things he wouldn't be able to help with. He couldn't be her right hand if she ever wanted to use his crossbow or shoot from a gun that required two hands. But he sure as hell could try with everything else.

"I'll be yer right hand," he offered, pulling her closer to him. They were only inches away, like they had been when they had first gone hunting. "Can't promise I'll do things like ya want. But I can learn."

Terry stared at Daryl, not believing the words that were coming out of his mouth. She had been tempted to bark at him that it was the dumbest idea she had ever heard. He would have to learn how to do things exactly the way she wanted and from experience, that never really turned out well. But looking into his eyes, she thought she could tell that he really meant it. He was willing to learn how to do things her way.

"Thank you," she said, ignoring the urge to pull him down into a kiss. She had a strong hunch that PDA was something that didn't exactly agree with this man. They returned to the carcass and she proceeded to tell him what she wanted him to do as her right hand, while she worked with her left.

* * *

"We should remember to snag some spices, next time we go to town," Terry commented as she chewed on the now cooked meat. Most of the group voiced their agreement. The abundance of meat was a welcome change, especially after the recent stress that had come from the horde of Walkers surrounding the prison a few days prior. Not only did it seem to seethe everyone's appetites, but it also looked like it improved everyone's mood.

"So, Terry. What did you do in New York?" Glenn asked before returning to eating his meal. Terry hadn't felt like talking about herself to these people before, mainly because she hadn't felt any sort of connection with them. But after having her hand amputated and sitting around, dining with them, made it feel like they had earned the right to ask about who she was.

"For the most part, I worked in my family's butcher shop," she answered. "Sometimes I'd help my brother with his business and every weekend I'd go full out Irish and spend the weekend… Drinking," she said, causing some of the people to chuckle. She listened intently as the others began to tell her about their lives prior to the apocalypse. She enjoyed listening to their stories, most of which included a lot more detail than hers.

She was beginning to feel that, despite the fact that she had lost her hand in the process, accepting Daryl's offer had been the smartest thing she had done since she left New York City. Even though they weren't all nice or genuine, they had managed to survive this long together and there was no reason for her to believe that she was any worse off with them than she was on her own. As Lori was telling her about the life they had been living before the apocalypse had hit, Terry glanced at Daryl, who was standing a bit further away talking to Rick about something.

A small smile formed on her lips and her heart fluttered.

For the first time since she had figured out that her chances of her brother's survival in Atlanta were slim, she was looking forward to the next day. Before, living in the moment had been her number one priority. She had been happy in the town, just being with Daryl but that had been different. There had been no definite future to look forward to but now, as long as they managed to keep themselves alive, there was going to _more._


	9. Chapter 9

"Why didn't we use that last time we went to town?"

"I told ya, we didn't know where the town was."

They were preparing the Hyundai so that they could head to the town again. The clothes that Terry had snagged last time were most ruined due to the blood that had soaked through the vast majority of them. The only things that had been spared had been the undergarments, socks and the dress that Terry had put at the bottom of her duffle bag. This time someone had suggested that more people went along, to ensure that if there was a horde that there were more than two people fighting them off.

"Are ya sure ya want to come with? 'S just gonna be in 'n out of the houses, grabbing clothes 'n supplies," Daryl asked, not wanting to reveal the true reason why he didn't want her to come along. Even though she seemed to be getting over the emotional toll that having her hand removed had taken on her, she had been drinking more every evening, justifying that it was there and it wasn't like there was an endless supply of alcohol in the world if no one was brewing. The way she had jumped at the idea of leaving for the town when Rick had brought up that they were running low on some medical supplies meant to him that she had finished the whiskey.

Excluding the problem he was beginning to have with her alcohol consumption, things were more than great between the two of them. After he had offered to be her right hand they had spent more time together, mostly him trying to learn how to be her right hand. While doing her butcherly duties she was very harsh on him, swearing and calling him a dumbass countless times. She would always apologize profusely afterwards, feeling like it was terrible that she was trying to tell him how to take care of a dead animal.

He had found it amusing. She had been pissed off at him before but usually that meant that she would go silent. But when it came to animals, there was nothing holding her back. Sometimes it was like he was with a completely different person, someone who didn't care who the hell he was; if he wasn't doing things like she wanted them done he was going to get yelled at.

"Still don't understand why we didn't use it," Terry said as she threw the duffle bag into the trunk of the car. "Could have made things so much easier."

"Guess so," he replied. "Been in 'n out there in a day."

She looked at him and immediately realized where he was going with that. If they hadn't been stuck in the town for those extra days, they wouldn't have gotten so _close_, at least not so soon. Heck, maybe nothing at all would have happened between them if they had taken the car. She smiled softly before placing her left hand on his right, giving it a slight squeeze. She had been trying to build up the amount of affection she showed in front of the others, testing the waters each time. Granted, grabbing his arm wasn't really a bit step but she was honestly worried about he would react every time she did something in front of others.

"Terry!"

Her attention was torn away from her and Daryl's relationship as Maggie called out her name. She let go of Daryl's arm, unaware that he had been reaching for her and she scurried towards Maggie, who seemed to be waiting patiently for her. The two women greeted each other with friendly smiles before the brunette got down to business.

"Would you mind grabbing some… feminine hygiene products?" Maggie asked; her voice low so that not everyone in the area would be able to hear the question.

"You mean tampons and things like that?"

Terry's question seemed to amuse Maggie, who nodded with a smile. Terry nodded, promising Maggie that she would get an abundance of them. Apparently they had been running low on such products recently which Maggie attributed to the fact that there was now one more woman in the group. Terry had almost completely forgotten about her feminine needs. She had never been regular and she could have sworn that it was at least a few months since she lest had any of those needs. It had been comfortable out on her own not to have to worry about such things but now that she wasn't alone anymore the whole no-period thing could become a problem.

Especially if things continued to be like they were between her and Daryl.

"It would be nice if you could just get anything us girls might need. Pregnancy tests, condoms… lubrication… makeup and even birth control if you find some," Maggie suggested, nearly scaring Terry half to death with the suggestion that they would be needing pregnancy test. She reminded herself quickly that the saying went _better safe than sorry_. If they were going to get pregnant it was best to know as soon as possible.

"I'll grab anything that can uh, be of use," Terry said with a grin.

"Thank you, you're a doll."

"Terry, ya ready t'go?"

Terry gave Maggie a wave before turning around and approaching the Hyundai. She took a good look at their company as she climbed into the backseat. They had decided to send her, Daryl, T-Dog and Glenn, who insisted that he would come along since he had been the one who would run for supplies when they were near Atlanta. Originally, Terry had wanted to be the one driving, she had insisted that she needed to learn how to handle driving with just one hand. It had taken Daryl a while to convince her that it could wait until they weren't actually doing something important like getting supplies.

"You don't want to be in the passenger's seat?"

Terry looked up to see T-Dog standing in the door that led into the passenger's seat. Terry shook her head which resulted in T-Dog taking the passenger's seat. She wanted to avoid telling Daryl what to do at all times and she knew that if she was in the passenger's seat she was likely to begin telling him what to do; at least that's how things had been prior to the Walkers. Being bossy was something that was in her nature and even though she had spent roughly a year on her own it seemed that some of that bossiness still resided in her.

"What did Maggie want?"

"She just wanted me to get some… girl stuff," she replied, looking at Glenn with a grin. "Among other things," she added with a wink. As they began on their ride to the town, Daryl and T-Dog planned out the things that they needed while Terry and Glenn sat in the backseat, neither of them saying much to each other. Each of them was stuck in their own minds, thinking of the _other things _she had previously mentioned.

Terry honestly hadn't thought about condoms at all. When they were locked up in the house they had gone without them for the entire time. She scolded herself for being so careless. It had seemed like a thing of the past, something that, now that civilization as they knew it had completely changed, wasn't needed anymore. Thankfully they hadn't yet had a chance to do it again. She had been hesitant about getting physically close to him after having her hand removed. She had been worried that it would have some effect and somehow keep them from having proper relations.

"God, this road creeps me out," Terry said as they entered the road which led directly into the town, the one which was completely empty. When she received a curious glance from both Glenn and T-Dog she decided to give a proper explanation:

"It reminds me of this one road I went down in North Carolina. That road, like this one, was completely empty. But it had been cleared by a group of people, instead of just being naturally empty. The pickup I had been on broke down there, so I had to continue on foot. I didn't think anything of the fact that it had been cleared, I just thought it was super convenient," she began, effectively catching the attention of the whole car.

"Turns out, there was this group of survivors who had cleared the road, not that I knew at the time. But they would sit there, stalking people who went down there. They would wait until the person would stop to eat or rest or something and then they would attack."

Daryl wanted to ask her why she hadn't told him this before. He vaguely recalled hearing something about some sort of incident when they first met, but she had never shared the story. Somehow it had never occurred to him that she had had trouble along the road to Georgia. The fact that she was in one piece- at least until she met him, had made him think that her trip had gone without a hitch.

"So I stop for a lick of whiskey. I was tired, pissed and really, really craving whiskey. So I get my things off, put down the machete and suddenly- BAM!" she said the last word loudly, clapping her hands as she did. "They come out of nowhere, five of them. They begin to talk about dinner being ready. I was just standing there with the bottle in my hand thinking _what the fuck is going on?_ So the only woman that was in their group began talking to me, asking me to understand that this was what they had to do to survive. She jumps towards me. Thankfully I still had the whiskey so I hit her in the head with the bottle and she drops down. Now the other members of her group aren't too happy with me. I had enough time to pick up the machete before they came towards me."

Her expression changed as the story progressed. At first she had been excited about telling the story but towards the end it became an uneasy expression. She remembered why she hadn't told the story yet. She had killed the people who had tried to eat her. She justified it in her mind by telling herself that if she hadn't killed them first, they would have killed her **and** eaten her, but she had none the less killed a human being, someone that wasn't a Walker.

"You killed them, huh?" Glenn asked, sensing that she wasn't comfortable with the story any more. Terry looked at him and nodded slowly.

"Not exactly proud of it, but it was either kill or be killed, you know? I didn't have a choice," she said, the corners of her mouth turning downwards.

"Damn straight ya didn't," Daryl piped up. "They had it comin' too. Eatin' people like damn Walkers."

"Rick has killed some people before," Glenn interjected. "Not Walkers. Some people don't give you a choice."

There was a moment of silence, everyone thinking about the fact that there were people out there who were willing to eat others in order to not starve. It seemed like such a counterproductive thing to do; they were trying to survive the Walkers and those people were turning into the same thing that was driving them to starvation. Except they were doing it on purpose, they hadn't come back from the dead before they developed an appetite for humans.

"There were four of them coming at you?" T-Dog suddenly asked.

"Yeah, four of them," Terry answered, not sure how it mattered how many they were.

"And you killed all of them on your own?"

"Well, one sort of accidentally injured another, making it easier for me," Terry explained. "He had meant to shoot me but I had moved in the nick of time and his shot got one of his buddies. So I didn't have to worry about that guy until I had finished the others. But I guess I did."

"Course ya did," Daryl said with a grin playing on his lips. "You're a fighter. Ain't no one gonna take Terry down without a fight." He wished that she had told him this story before, so that he could have heard it before the others. It was the kind of story he would have shared with them in order to show off how tough she was. He watched her momentarily using the rear view mirror. She seemed to beam with pride after she realized that they didn't see it as a bad thing that she had killed humans. He felt an immense sense of pride at the thought that she was able to take on a group of four grown men on her own.

The thought that someone had planned on eating her, however, disgusted him. Whoever they were, they were desperate to attack someone like Terry. She looked weak and she definitely wasn't going to be a big meal on her own. Five against one, the odds were definitely in their favor, which meant they went for her figuring that she would be an easy meal. His thoughts turned into slight anger and he found himself wishing that he had been there in order to have been the one to put those idiots down.

"Oh shit."

T-Dog's words caught Terry and Glenn's attention, causing them both to lean so that they could see out the front window. There were two men standing on the middle of the street in the town that they had entered only a few moments ago. Daryl slowed down the car, slowly putting it to a full stop. "Crossbow," he said, not taking his eyes off of the men in the road. Terry reached on to the floor and picked up the crossbow which had been resting at her feet and handed it to Daryl. She decided to follow his example and she reached into the back and picked up her machete and both T-Dog and Glenn took out the guns that they had with them.

"Terry, stay here," Daryl commanded as he opened the door to his side. But his words didn't have any effect on her, instead she slid out of the backseat and on to the road and she followed Daryl as he walked so that they were in front of the car. He refrained from saying something about how she should have listened to him, not wanting the two men to think that they weren't a sound group.

"Tommy look, it's a man with a crossbow and a blonde. Guess these are the two Mickey and Dean were talking about," the heavier set man said, aiming his gun at Daryl. Terry's stomach turned at the names. She had no idea who those guys were, but she assumed that they were the ones that had been sitting on top of the roof. They were the men who had shot at her and Daryl. "Looks like they brought some friends with."

"How 'bout we take them to see Charlie? I'm sure he'd like to meet these little shits," the other man said.

"If you haven't noticed there are more of us and of you right now," Glenn pointed out, filled with confidence. They had aligned themselves so that they all stood side-by-side. The two men didn't seem to be fazed by that bit of information; instead they seemed to only grow more confident.

"Well, ain't this an interesting sight."

The group's attention was caught by a voice coming from their side. Out of the house that Daryl and Terry had occupied in their stay in the town stepped two men, both armed. As they looked around they began to notice more people, some in the windows, some in the gaps between the houses and others that were coming out of their house. Since their last visit, the town had been taken over by a bigger group.

"What the hell," Terry muttered, surprised by the turn of events.

"Who are ya'll?" Daryl asked, obviously not afraid to question these people. The only thing going through his mind was that he hoped it wasn't the group that that damn kid Randall had been with.

"Survivors, just like you," the man that had spoken earlier said as he slowly paced towards the group. "Just trying to get by. This here is our home for now," he explained. Even though his voice was calm, it was evident that he was making a statement. Everything in the town belonged to them and they were trespassing. His eyes flickered towards Terry and a smile crept on to his lips.

"Get yer eyes off of her," Daryl commanded, taking a step closer to Terry.

The man laughed at Daryl's reaction. There was no doubt in his mind that these were the two that Mickey and Dean had been talking about. They said that the couple had cooped up inside a house and had been locked up there for a couple of days. The thought of what they had been doing was enough to make him miss having his wife around. She had been one of the first people in their group to fall to a Walker. She was as dumb as a bag of bricks but she sure knew how to love a man.

"Not exactly my type," he said, looking at Daryl. He held up his hand and waved it around, indicating that her lack of hand was something that didn't excite him. Terry had prepared herself to say something to the man, but she drew a blank. Her feelings were slightly hurt by the fact that her lack of hand was one of the reasons why she wasn't someone's type.

"Why don't you just keep yer mouth shut 'bout her?" Daryl said, aiming his crossbow at the man. "She ain't no worse though she ain't got both hands. Pro'ly has more balls than ya'll." Even though it was a stupid thing to say, Terry was glad that Daryl had been able to say something when she had drawn a blank. She gazed at him, grateful that he was on her side and that she was _his._

"I'm sure she does. You don't exactly look like a ladies' man."

Terry had to grab Daryl as he had begun to charge towards the man. He was trying to provoke Daryl into an attack, or at least it appeared that way. Why else would he say something like that? "Daryl, it's not going to be worth it," she said, her eyes pleading him to calm down. It took Daryl a few moments, but eventually he lowered the crossbow and looked at her with a surly expression on his face. Terry offered him a hopeful smile before she turned to look at the man.

"Look, we just wanted to get supplies. We didn't know that someone had taken over the town," she said, trying the diplomatic approach. "If you can't spare anything, we can go look elsewhere."

"You bet it has been taken over," the man said, slowly making his way closer to the group. "We don't exactly take kind to strangers. Bad experience, ya know?" He looked at the group, taking in the members for a moment, as if he were trying to lock them in his memory. "Boys, how about we show them how we deal with strangers?" he called out, prompting the people that had been in their houses to come out, revealing that the group consisted of only men.

Glenn, T-Dog, Daryl and Terry all watched with anxiety as a group of about forty men came together in front of them, most of them looking at them with either disgust or distrust. It had only been a couple of weeks since they had gone on the trip that cost Terry her hand, but apparently that had been more than enough for a large group of men to move into the town. Some of them closed their eyes, hoping that the situation would not result in death. Theirs, at any rate.

Terry, however, decided that she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of looking afraid. Instead she scanned the crowd, trying her best to show the men that they had no power over them; at least not over her.

Suddenly the silence that had been hanging in the air was broken by a voice coming from the porch of one of the houses and it only said three words:

"Holy shit. Wynnie?"

**A/n: **Sorry if this chapter wasn't lackluster. Guess no action makes it a little dull, huh? Anyways, thanks for the comments, those who always do them. You guys make me happy! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

**Warning:** This chapter does have some smut. Consider yourself warned.

* * *

There was only one person who called Terry by the name _Wynnie_ without getting their ass beat to a pulp afterwards. Terry's attention was drawn from the crowd that she had been studying to the porch where a very familiar redhead was standing. It was a wonder that the men hadn't made the connection yet- if the difference in hair color was ignored, they were strikingly similar. It wasn't hard to tell that they were related in some way.

"Ryan?" she called out, her voice nearly cracking at the end. Her heart was beating so hard against her chest that she was sure that it was going to burst at any second. The redhead ran off the porch and immediately headed towards her, wrapping his arms around the girl who was significantly shorter than he was.

Ryan Argall hadn't expected to see his sister ever again. It had taken Atlanta no time to be overrun with Walkers so he had assumed that New York City had been forsaken from day one. His mam, da and little sister were doomed from the beginning. But here she was with a group of three men, driving to get supplies and she looked different. When they broke the hug, he studied her intensely.

"What the fuck happened to you, kid," he said with a laugh. "You're not the Wynnie I know." He grabbed her right arm and held up the bandaged stump.

"I'm not sure you'd believe everything if I told you the whole story," Terry said, laughing.

There was a loud clearing of the throat and their reunion was put on hold. Ryan was forced to turn around and face the man who had called out the men. "Ryan, mind telling me what the hell is going on?" he inquired. Terry looked at her group, only to see that their expression asked the same question. The only person who didn't seemed to be lost was Daryl, who looked at her with a minuscule smile.

"Charlie, you can't hurt these people," Ryan said, his words sounding more like he was telling the leader some undeniable truth rather than asking him a question. "Or at least not my sister, Terrwyn," he said, motioning towards Terry. She wanted to protest and say that hurting any of them wasn't an option but she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud in fear of jinxing their luck. The fact that she was lucky was now irrefutable. She had managed to get out of New York alive, get to Georgia without getting killed, been saved from dying of a Walker bite and now she had found her brother.

"Sister? I thought you said she had been in New York City," Charlie said, looking at the girl with suspicion. "Don't look like she's in New York to me."

"I was," Terry said, speaking up. "I came down to look for Ryan after our parents…" she looked at her brother with a solemn expression which he seemed to return. "It was hell, but I made it down here. When I saw that Atlanta was overrun, I figured the worst."

Ryan watched; his mind filled with anxiety, as Charlie seemed to be mulling over the new bits of information. Whatever he decided to do with Terrwyn's companions didn't matter as much as what he decided to do with her. He couldn't help but shoot a rather sharp glance in the direction of the man who stood close by her side. Everyone had heard about the couple that had been in the town when Mickey and Dean were stuck on one of the roofs. They had claimed that the couple had been getting it on throughout the night and even the next day.

Ryan had to remind himself that Mickey was prone to exaggerate and Dean usually went along with Mickey's exaggerations for the hell of it. But he couldn't help but think that the man that stood with his sister was way below her. He looked like a very typical redneck and from what he had heard while he was still in the house, he sounded very much like one too. Even though she didn't look as glamorous now, Ryan still believed that his sister deserved the best of the best. She was a diva at heart; she had been one for ages. It was hard to believe that she wasn't wearing makeup or high heels. Her clothes, a simple tank top and shorts, were far from being her style.

He made a mental note to go searching for clothes with her as soon as they returned to New York.

"Any friend of Ryan's family is welcome in our town," Charlie announced after thinking things through. He looked at the men. "Go on with your business! There's nothing more to see here."

Terry looked at the rest of her group with a joyous expression. The fact that her brother happened to be in this group was a whole new level of luck, the kind she couldn't believe. She watched as the group of men separated, most of the men returning the places that were, apparently, their home. "Can anyone just explain what just happened?" Glenn asked as the group gathered around into a small circle.

"You were extremely lucky, that's what," a voice said, intruding into the conversation. Everyone looked at the man, Charlie, who now stood over them with Ryan at his side. "You have one hour to take any supplies that you need from the local store, but that's it. Stay longer and we won't be so kind. Try and go anywhere else and my men have the go to shoot you." After those words he walked away, retreating into the house that he had come out of.

"We can't waste any time," Glenn said, heading straight for the store that was only a few houses away. T-Dog followed him but both Daryl and Terry stood in the same spot, Ryan standing across from them. There was a moment of silence before the siblings embraced once more, this time the hug lasting longer than it had done before. It was a profound feeling for both of them. They had assumed that they had lost their family, the people that they had grown up with only to find out that one other member survived.

"So who the hell is this redneck fuck?" Ryan said, his words causing Daryl to take on a defensive position. Terry had been tempted to laugh, knowing that her brother didn't mean any harm with those words. That was the way he always spoke to the men that she had dated, calling them names and being nasty towards them. But when she had looked at Daryl and saw how defensive he had become she realized that, this too, was another thing that had been completely unnecessary behavior that belonged in her old life.

"Ryan, don't," she said, taking Daryl's hand into hers. "This is Daryl, he's my-" she paused, wondering what the appropriate term was for him. He had called her his woman, but did that mean that they were a couple or was it weird to call him her boyfriend? "My man," she said, deciding on using the same term for him as he seemed to use for her. "He brought me to his group and they've been keeping me company," she explained.

"Your man?" Ryan laughed at his sister's words, effectively offending Daryl. "Seriously, who are you and what have you done with Wynnie?" His laughing stopped when he noticed the look that she was giving him. He mouthed a 'fine' before looking away from Daryl.

"I'm going to go get the duffle bag," Terry announced, looking at Daryl.

Fed up with Ryan's mocking, Daryl decided that he'd show the man who he was to Terry. He leaned down and kissed her, catching her off guard. Usually he felt that whatever was between him and Terry was meant to remain between the two of them. Nobody else had any business knowing what it was like for the two of them. But the way Ryan had laughed at the notion that they were together had pissed him off, beyond words. He watched as terry went back to the Hyundai and went to open the trunk.

"Listen, Darrell," Ryan said, purposely getting Daryl's name wrong. "I don't give a fuck who you are to my sister; I don't think you're good enough. She's not that girl she looks like right now. She doesn't belong in this world, not out fighting for her life anyways. She belongs in a fucking penthouse with whiskey by the bottles, a dress that's tighter than all hell on her with as much makeup as she can fit on her pretty little face. In this world she might like someone like you," he said, obvious disdain in his voice. "But you are not the kind of man she deserves."

"Guess I'm lucky then," Daryl replied. "That this is the world we live in right now."

He headed straight for the store, ready to gather as many supplies as he could carry. But not matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get Ryan's words out of his mind. It wasn't like the thought hadn't occurred to him before, that in any other situation he would never be able to catch her attention. Heck, it had often popped up in his mind, the thought directing him to end things with her because he couldn't be what she was supposed to have. What he felt that she needed.

"_I don't need you. But right now I want to be with you._"

Daryl reminded himself of the words that she had said to him when he told her that he couldn't be what she needed. Even if she wasn't the girl that she used to be, she should know better than anyone else what she wanted. He looked up as he heard the bell ring, indicating that someone had entered the shop. In entered Ryan and Terry, the man looking as if he was bothered with something. Daryl smiled to himself, feeling victorious.

_How dare he? _Terry thought to herself as she went straight for the personal care section. She should have known that Ryan would never approve of Daryl. He had always had a preference for the richer, better looking and sharply dressed guys that she had dated. But to tell her that he was trash? She threw the tampons into the duffle bag in an angry fashion. She was still happy that she had her brother back in her life but there were some things that were never going to change. Sibling disputes were one of those things.

She knelt down as she looked at the family planning section. There were only a few boxes of condoms left, causing her to smile slightly. Funny how people didn't seem to think of taking tampons when running away from their hometown but they thought of taking an abundance of condoms. She grabbed the remaining packs and put them into the bag before she began throwing the pregnancy tests into the bag.

"Looks like they took the booze." The sudden interruption startled Terry, causing her to back up quickly, nearly falling down in the process. She was quickly steadied by Daryl who seemed to be slightly amused by the situation. "Ya actin' like ya got somethin' t'hide," he said, looking at what she had in her hands. The sight of the pregnancy test immediately silenced him and wiped the grin off of his face.

"Oh, it's for Maggie. She suggested we have some… Just so we can know if there is anything," Terry said, quickly throwing the last test into the bag. Her cheeks were now a dark shade of red from embarrassment of being caught with a pregnancy test in her hand. She had been considering taking one, just in case. She had been plenty careless back before the Walkers came to be but somehow she had always been lucky and not gotten pregnant. She was hoping that this time around her luck would continue.

"Guess it'd be good to know," Daryl said, moving on to the vitamins that were close by. "Don't Lori need some vitamins? Try and keep her healthy 'n shit?" he questioned. Terry nodded as she approached him and they quickly put most of the vitamin and supplements into the duffle bag.

It had only taken them about forty minutes to pretty much empty the store of any valuable or useful items that were still in the store. The selection was far poorer than it had been when they first visited the town and both Daryl and Terry felt bad about the fact that they hadn't taken more things when they had gone to the store in the first place.

"Alright, the car's loaded," T-Dog announced as he closed the trunk.

"Wynnie, we can't just… leave each other now. Not after all you've been through to get down here to find me," Ryan said, looking at his sister with a serious expression. Terrwyn looked at him and nodded. Even if he was an asshole, he was still her brother and last kin. He was the one who had taken care of her when she needed someone to watch out for her and he had been the one who had picked her up whenever she called. It made no sense to just give him up after finding him.

"Why don't you come with me back to the prison? Spend some time with my friends," she offered, hoping that he would accept. She watched as one corner of his mouth lifted; a sign that she knew well that indicated that he was about to decline. "You heard what Charlie said. He doesn't want strangers here, but my people will let you come," she pleaded.

"I'm not sure your _man_ would appreciate my presence," Ryan said, watching as Daryl entered the car.

"You're saying you'd appreciate his?" Terry challenged. "Look, I'm sure you both can be in the same area without talking to each other, right? If either of you actually gave a fuck about me, you'd ride it out."

"Fuck women and their guilt tripping," Ryan said with a resigned sigh. "Fine, I'll come along with you and your 'people'," he said, making sure to air quote _people._

* * *

"Fuck."

Terry threw down the belt like item she had been trying to shorten in anger. She had been hoping that she could, eventually, fashion it into something that she could use to attach weapons at the end of her stump. If she wasn't able to use her right arm for normal tasks, the least she could do was make it so that she could use it to defend herself. But because of her inability to use both her hands in making the weapon attachment thing she was ready to give up on the idea. Perhaps she was doomed to become more useless than she had been prior to the amputation.

"You called fer me?"

She looked up at the entrance of her cell and she couldn't help but smile at the sight of Daryl. It had become a thing. Whenever she was on the verge of giving up because of the frustration that came with no right hand, he seemed to appear and he was beginning to use that stupid line every single time. Either that or he would _not reckon her to be a quitter_ or something similarly ridiculous. But it never failed to make her feel better.

"God, it feels like I haven't seen you in forever," she said, standing up and walking up to him. She knew why they hadn't been spending a lot of time together. Her brother had completely taken over her, trying to spend as much time as possible with her. She didn't mind that much, she had missed him and being in his company once more was a luxury she had thought she would never get to experience again.

His presence however meant that Daryl wasn't likely to approach her, at least not as much as he did prior to Ryan's arrival. As much as she loved her brother, she longed to spend some time with Daryl. After losing her hand he had become a vital part of her life. Not just as her right hand, but as someone she _needed_. She couldn't help but feel silly, needing someone. Especially since she had specifically told him that she didn't need him. His presence was necessary for her to get through the day with her sanity intact.

Daryl replied to her by resting his hands on her hips and bending down, luring her into a soft, delicate kiss which was unlike the other kisses that they had exchanged.

"I've missed you."

"I've been here, ya know. Ain't like I've been gone all day long," Daryl said, the tone of his voice giving away how much he was enjoying this.

"Might as well been, with Ryan-"

"Don't mention 'im, please?"

"Fine."

She was disheartened by the fact that her brother and Daryl didn't get along at all. No matter how hard she would try to fool herself, tell herself that they would come to their senses and befriend each other, she knew that it was very unlikely. It was a miracle that either of them hadn't insisted that she just chose one and told the other to go. Of course it wasn't their place to tell her, especially if they weren't in charge of the prison.

"What were ya tryin' to make?" Daryl asked, picking up the small belt like item.

"I was thinking of trying to make… like a holster? Or you know, something that could go around my arm so I could have a knife or something on the end of this… thing," she said, looking at her stump with contempt.

"A knife?"

"You sound like it's a surprising idea."

"'Cause it is. Didn't exactly picture ya with a knife on yer arm," Daryl said, still fingering the belt he had picked up.

"I have to have some use for this," Terry said, waving her arm. "If I can't use it to keep things still, might as well use it to keep myself alive."

The idea of her having a knife at the end of the stump was somehow _exciting_ to Daryl. There was something about how she was refusing to become crippled by her stump that made him want her more and it helped him appreciate the fact that she was _his_. Of course she would want a weapon at the end of her arm, she was his woman and she wasn't just going to sit around and be useless for the rest of her life.

Their eyes met and he couldn't help but lean in towards her, stealing a single kiss. She didn't need him to do anything for her but she wanted him around.

"Did I say something to lure you in?" she asked with a titter.

"Ya don't need anythin' t' lure me in," he told her, speaking the truth. She would always draw him in, he was sure of that. She didn't need to say things to get him to want her.

This time it was she who pulled him into a kiss and it was driven by a certain hunger, rather than delicacy. They teetered deeper in the cell, eventually sliding down on to the bed she was beginning to view as her own. Their tongues battled as their hands ran over the surface of each other's clothes. Terry shivered as Daryl's cold hand found its way under her shirt, causing him to break the kiss.

"You 'kay?" he asked with concern in his eyes.

"Your hand was cold," she replied, pulling him down with her good hand so that they could resume locking lips once more.

Their hands began to sneak under the clothes. His were cold, causing her to wriggle under his touch until his hands had warmed up. She slid her left hand under his shirt, allowing it to explore his chest and stomach. She tried to remember whether she had done this before, when they had been together while they were in the town. But her memory drew a blank and her hand certainly didn't recognize the touch of his bare chest as well as it should of.

She tugged at the end of his shirt, not wanting to attempt pulling it off with only one good hand. As if he understood her request, Daryl pulled the shirt off of his body revealing the chest that she had been exploring. Terry pulled herself up, wanting to kiss him, only to be left with her head at his chest. It didn't stop her; instead she began gently kissing his chest.

Daryl tensed up when he lips gently touched his chest. A hand was something he could get used to exploring his chest but the idea of lips on _his_ chest, now that was ridiculous. But when he looked down to see her gently placing her lips on his chest as if she were trying hard to avoid hurting him, his muscles relaxed. He gently led her down so that she was lying on her back once more and he pulled off her shirt, revealing the soft lines that were now his. As he pressed his body against her and their lips met once more, his hand wandered under her and he struggled momentarily with the hook that hid her breasts.

"Mmm, Daryl," she said, her breath tickling the side of his neck as she kissed his jawline.

Once he had gotten the bra off he traveled downwards, this time taking more time to admire the beauty of the two round objects that were in front of him. _God, they were just so soft_. He leaned down and suckled on one of them, taking in the sweet taste of her skin that followed. As she trembled beneath him, a grin rested upon his lips. The fact that he could make her react that way.

"Dar-yl," the way she said his name rung with urgency, causing him to move so that they were once more face to face. "I _need_ you." There was no need for her to tell him that she did, the desire was obvious in the way she was tugging at his pants. He didn't waste any time, quickly undoing his pants and kicking them off before pulling down the pants that had kept her wrapped up, right out of his reach.

As they consumed each other in eager kisses, she used her feet to slowly pull down the final barrier that kept his erect manhood from her. Pressing his body closer to hers Daryl could feel how she quivered, almost resembling someone who was destitute. He broke the kiss to look at her and they shared a smile, both feeling that it was way overdue that they returned to pursuing each other physically.

"I _want _ya," he murmured, pulling down the panties that had been hiding her softness from him. He reached down and gently caressed her, allowing the sensation to become familiar to his fingers. He smiled triumphantly as he slid his finger into her wetness, allowing it to disappear temporarily. He moved it, bending it slightly, causing Terry to writhe under his touch.

"Daryl,"

The way she said his name caused him to retreat his finger before he positioned himself properly. She had been begging for him to enter her, begging to feel the fullness that came when he was inside of her. He slowly slid into her, filling up every inch that she had to offer. Slowly he began to thrust, trying to avoid going too fast. Resisting the urge to go faster got increasingly difficult until eventually he caved in, sliding in and out, thrusting deeper when possible.

Her fingers dug into his back, causing a surge of pleasure to go through his body. He leaned down and pressed his lips against her, their tongues dancing as he reentered her over and over again.

"God, Terry," he managed to squeeze out as his pace slowed down. The way she clenched around _him_ was something he had never experienced before, causing him to instantly release, pulsating within her. She pulled her head up and planted a kiss on his lips before allowing herself to fall back down. He hung his head and let it rest in the valley between her neck and shoulder. He placed a small kiss on her collarbone before slowly pulling out of her.

She wanted to say it, the words playing on her lips. She told herself that she just had to spit it out, that it wouldn't do much harm. Because she really did, after all. Saving her life and becoming her right hand, he had really done it himself. If he didn't like it he could only blame himself. It wasn't like she had tried to. She opened her mouth, mouthing the words over and over again but unable to actually voice them.

She ran her hand through his hair, mouthing the words that she had never been able to say to any man.

_I love you_.

* * *

**A/n:** I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Guess there wasn't that much happening in it. :) but at any rate, thank you to those who are reviewing all the time. I really can't express how happy I am to see some comments from you guys. I know I say this all the time, but I'm just that happy about it!


	11. Chapter 11

Finally, she was alone.

Terry looked around suspiciously, wondering whether she had been followed by Ryan. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized that he wasn't with her. She loved her brother but the fact that he was constantly hovering around her was getting a little tiring. It didn't matter what she was doing, if she didn't claim to be going to bed he would follow her. She liked to think that it was just because he missed her so much, but a part of her couldn't help but wonder whether he was just trying to keep her away from Daryl.

She wasn't exactly familiar with where everyone was in the prison. Her cell was rather isolated, since originally they hadn't trusted her to share the same sleeping quarters. After she became an official part of the group she never really bothered to move cells, feeling that the one she was in had become her own. She was familiar with where Daryl slept, but it was also fairly isolated.

Finally she reached a cell block that seemed to have cells that were organized and most of them cleaned out. She stood there for a moment, trying to figure out which one would belong to Maggie. As she passed the calls, one by one, she began to realize that she had nothing to help her guess which cell would belong to Maggie, or anyone else in the group for that matter.

"Lookin' for something?"

The voice caught Terry off guard, causing her to jump slightly. She turned around and let out a relieved sigh when she saw that the person who had spoken to her happened to be the exact person she was looking for. She approached Maggie, her eyes darting around the room as she checked whether there were other people in the area.

"I was looking for," she paused, wondering whether she could just tell Maggie that she was going to search her cell. "Supplies," she said before coughing slightly. So talking about that kind of stuff was harder than she had imagined. Even if she had held the items in her hand at the store she couldn't talk about them? "Condoms and… that stuff I got for you," she said, looking away.

Maggie laughed at how awkward the blonde seemed to get when she spoke of protection. "It's about time the two of you get together," she said, leading the way into the cell she shared with Glenn. She had expected that Terry had taken some of the stash for herself but obviously she had been wrong. She had figured that it had been a while since they had beginning to _bump uglies_, with how they acted around each other. "You should have just taken some before giving me what you got," she said, pulling the bag that contained the items that Terry had fetched for her.

"I didn't really think ahead," Terry admitted, her mind wandering to the memory of the previous night. So she wasn't exactly the most responsible person when it came to practicing safe sex. But it wasn't like she was trying to avoid being careful. It just slipped her mind whenever there was a heat of the moment situation. She began rummaging through the bag that Maggie had brought forth, pulling out a box of condoms.

"Ya'll haven't been doing it without some, right?" Maggie asked suddenly. She had been pissed when she found out that Lori might have been pregnant. She honestly felt that people had to be careful, especially since they had no real way of whether they were going to be safe in the prison for the long run. She had thought about having a child with Glenn and while it seemed like it would be perfect to start a family with him she knew that it was not the time.

Terry looked at Maggie, not wanting to lie to her. She didn't say a word but the look on Maggie's face told her that she understood. Terry returned to the bag and picked up two pregnancy tests and placed the items she had taken into the small bag she had brought along with her.

"A lot?" Maggie asked, putting away the bag after pulling out another pack of condoms. She thrust the pack into the bag that Terry had.

"Not lately," Terry answered sheepishly. "When we trapped in the town the first time… We sort of spent most of the time in bed," she admitted.

"Have you gotten your period yet? I mean, you don't think you're…?"

"I honestly don't know," Terry said with a resigned sigh. "I haven't really had a period in a long time," she confessed with an embarrassed expression on her face. "So that's not really something I can use to you know… make sure I'm not."

If Maggie hadn't asked her to bring condoms or pregnancy tests, Terry wouldn't have thought about the possibility that she could become pregnant. It just didn't occur to her that something like that could happen. How dumb she be, thinking that perhaps she was special and wouldn't get pregnant? She picked up her bag and followed Maggie as she left the cell.

"You let me know when you find out, okay?" Maggie asked, genuinely concerned about Terry. Since she had joined the group there had been one issue after another to deal with. She hadn't been welcome at first, she had lost her hand and had to adjust to that and to top it all off she had found her brother. Adding a baby into the mix was definitely one of the last things that she would need.

Terry nodded, promising that she would do so.

* * *

"So tell me, _sheriff_," Ryan said, the mocking tone of his shining through. "Why am I not allowed to carry a gun within the prison? You give that redneck permission to carry his fucking crossbow and my sister is allowed to carry that machete around the premises. Why am I an exception?" he said, crossing his arms.

He didn't like any of the people that his sister had been associating herself with. They all seemed like people that wouldn't approve of the way they had been living their life before. Some of them even looked like they would have tried to stop them from doing the kind of things that they did. The cop sure as hell would have been all up in his business had he known what kind of business Ryan had been doing most of the time. From the way the cop treated him, his sister hadn't told him anything yet.

"You're a stranger," Rick answered plain and simply. "Your sister earned her right to bear her weapon around us."

She had received her weapon before they had thought she had earned it. They had been reluctant to comply with Daryl's wishes that she would have her items back but they saw no choice. Daryl usually seemed to have a sound judgment of people and although he could be hotheaded and even surly at times he did the right things most of the time.

The fact that him and Ryan didn't get along was not helping the redhead's case.

"What the fuck did Wynnie do to get you lot to let her have that machete?" Ryan asked before laughing. "Are you all pitying her because she lost her hand trying to help you people out? Cuz my sister doesn't need your pity. She's doing just fine without her hand," he said defensively. He had seen the way that some of them looked at her, their eyes filled with some weird pity. The only people that didn't look at her like she was someone to feel sorry for was the damn redneck, the kid and one of the women.

"We're not pitying her," Rick protested, although he knew that Ryan was on to something. She had lost her hand after going on a run to get supplies for them. Of course they couldn't help but feel bad about the whole losing her hand business. He tried to find a good reason why she was allowed to have her machete but all he kept coming up with was that she was more use with it or Daryl had convinced them to give it to her.

"You can't even come up with a reason why she has it," Ryan said, obviously offended by Rick's lack of response. He turned around and walked away from the sheriff.

The more he saw of the place his sister had been staying at, the more convinced he became that he needed to get her out of there. There was no way that she was going to hang around this place, happy to live in filthy with her friends, acting as if they were one big family. He was sure that she would come to her senses; that she would remember the glory of being in New York City and having the option of looking fabulous at all times. If she wasn't going to come around on her own accord, Ryan knew that it was up to him to convince her to leave with his group when the time came.

Daryl had been watching as Terry's brother had questioned Rick about something. As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't stand her brother one bit. The man was rude and he acted as if he and Terry were above everyone else. It was difficult for Daryl to believe that the two were actually related. Even though she had tried to tell him that she had once been like Ryan, he couldn't see how she could have been as bad. He liked to imagine that she would at least have had the decency to try to conceal the pompous attitude.

He turned his attention back down at the project he had at hand. He wasn't exactly the most adept at doing things that didn't revolve around hunting but seeing how frustrated Terry had been when she had been trying to make that thing for her arm had left him feeling guilty. It didn't matter that she said that it wasn't his fault that she had lost her hand, it still felt like it was. So he had taken it upon himself to make the mechanism for her hand.

It wasn't as difficult as he had anticipated at first, once he realized how it was supposed to stay on her hand.

"I didn't peg you for a housewife."

Daryl didn't have to look up to be able to tell who was speaking to him. Deciding that ignoring Ryan was the better option, he continued to carefully stitch the leather with as much precision as he could muster. Ryan's comment did get to him and he found himself thinking that he wasn't supposed to be doing shit like this. He could just give it to Lori or Carol or something and tell them what he wanted them to do with it. He was a hunter, not a damn housewife.

"Guess I can see why Wynnie choose you as her man. You can hunt and do the work cut out for the ladies."

Daryl put down the project he had been focusing on and he stood up, standing face to face with Ryan. He knew that Terry would never forgive him if he did anything to her brother, but he was asking for it. It was almost like he was trying to get into a fight with Daryl.

"Better watch ya mouth," Daryl warned.

"Or what? You're gonna shoot me with that crossbow of yours, redneck?"

"Shut yer mouth, spudnigger," Daryl retorted, using one of the few slangs he knew for the Irish. His brother had been more focused on people that were from another race but Daryl had managed to pick up a couple for white people that his brother didn't like. He watched as Ryan's mouth turned from a cocky grin into a scowl, feeling triumphant with the way he had affected the redhead. "Ain't got a fancy reply for that, do ya?" he added, proud of himself.

Daryl didn't get a chance to prepare himself for what came next, since it happened so fast. One minute he was returning to the project he had been working on and the next he was forced backwards by someone's coming in contact with his face.

* * *

"Terry!"

The blonde scurried to hide the little stick that she had been staring at for the past minute or so, waiting for the line, or lines, to appear. She thrust the bag with the condoms and other pregnancy test under her bed before she stood up, only to be met with the sight of a pissed off looking Lori. She wondered whether Maggie had told Lori about the possibility that she might be pregnant. She quickly dismissed the idea as she hoped that Lori would be more compassionate than angry if she actually turned out to be pregnant.

"It's your brother and Daryl," Lori said, the anger dripping in her voice. "They were fighting."

Terry was more than disappointed at the sound of that news. She had realized that the two just weren't meant to get along but it had never occurred to her that their differences would result in a fight. She wasn't exactly surprised that Ryan had gotten into the fight, he was hotheaded and when they were out on the town prior to the apocalypse he would be the first one to get into a barfight. But she had expected more from Daryl, she had expected him to show her enough respect to be the bigger man.

She rushed out of the cell and followed Lori, forgetting all about the stick that was supposed to decide her fate.

When she got out of the prison everything seemed to be oddly calm. Terry had to scan the area to find both her brother and Daryl. However, she was only able to find the redhead. She walked over to her brother, a furious expression on her face.

"What the fuck Ryan," she said, pushing her brother backwards, causing Glenn, who had been hovering around Ryan, to back away. "I told you, if you gave a fuck you'd live with it. What do you do? Go and start a fight with Daryl?" she said, her voice close to a shout.

"You're siding with him Wynnie? Seriously?" Ryan said with a look of incredulity on his face. "We're family, you and I. We've been through so much more than you and that redneck piece of shit."

Terry wanted to tell him that he was wrong. That she had not been through more hardship with Ryan than with Daryl. Hell, the hardest part of her life she had spent alone. She had watched as their parents were lost to the Walkers and her brother hadn't been there with her. Daryl had been with her when she had been damn close to dying because of a Walker. The worst that Ryan had been with her through was a breakup with a sugardaddy or him getting busted while doing business. Compared to the things she had faced with Daryl, the things that her and Ryan had 'been through' were nothing.

"Tell me exactly what we've been through that is worse than this," she said, motioning towards her hand. She stared at her brother, trying to find any signs that he had been on the worse end of the beating stick. From what she could see, the only injury he had received was a punch on the mouth, which supported her theory that Ryan had been the one to start the fight. After a few moments of silence she knew that she had won.

"You better stay away from him Ryan," she threatened. "You might be my brother, but if you go around starting a fight with these here people you can expect them to want you gone."

"Doesn't matter, I'm leaving soon anyways," Ryan said, making sure that he said it so that his sister would hear him.

"Leaving?"

As much as she hated her brother's attitude towards Daryl, she still wanted him around. He had been the one to say that they couldn't just throw each other away after she had gone through all that trouble to find him and to some degree she did feel that he was right. The corners of her mouth turned downwards as the thought of having to choose between Ryan and Daryl would come up. Now she wanted to choose Daryl over Ryan but what about after a year? Ten years?

What if Daryl and she wouldn't last a month together after he brother left and it would be too late for her to go after him?

"My group," Ryan began, knowing well that his sister was listening intently. "Is leaving for New York in a couple of days. We're sick and tired of the filth that Georgia has to offer. There's nothing worth fighting for here but in New York there is just so much more."

"You're just going to leave me?"

"Wynnie, it doesn't have to be that way," Ryan said. "You can come with us, I'm sure the guys wouldn't mind if it was just you."

Terry didn't bother sticking around any longer for her brother's words, unable to imagine leaving the prison. She was finally beginning to feel like she belonged with these people. They were a part of a team and she was in it. Her search for Daryl was almost half-hearted because of the colossal amount of thinking that she had to do.

* * *

She had taken her place at the gate, waiting for Daryl to return. Once she had been able to stop thinking about Ryan leaving she had asked around for Daryl's whereabouts only to discover from T-Dog that Daryl had left shortly after the fight to go out and hunt. _Typical_. She thought to herself as she sat by the gate, eagerly trying to see his familiar figure walk up to the gate. She shouldn't have expected anything else from Daryl, since he wasn't exactly someone who liked to talk out his emotions.

She groaned as she buried her head in her hands. She had really gotten herself into a mess with all these people. There were so many ways things could have been better, so many ways that she could have avoided having to go through the trouble of questioning whether she should try and leave with her brother in order to prevent future disappointment or stay with Daryl in order to be where she felt like she belonged and where she felt at ease with being herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone banging at the gates. She stood up, eager to see Daryl. However her hopes were shot down when she saw a not-so-friendly face standing there with a group of men behind him.

"What are you doing?" she asked, fearing that by taking her brother to the prison she had led the group to them and now they were going to take over. "You're not getting the prison," she said, her left hand resting on the handle fo her machete.

"Why would we want a hellhole like this when we're going to New York?" one of the men spoke up, causing the others to laugh.

"Get your brother, tell him that we're leaving early."

* * *

**A/n:** I'm sorry for not updating yesterday! I've been having a hard time writing for this story and it might just be because I have been on a roll with my other one. However, I hope that this update is to your liking!


	12. Chapter 12

What was she supposed to do? What a ridiculous situation to be put, having to choose between your brother and the man you want to be with!

Terry stared at her brother who returned her gaze. Both of them had their arms folded and the look on their faces indicated that they were fighting over something. Because of the recent happening, it was obvious about what it was. He wanted her to come with him now and leave these people behind forever or until they show up in New York someday. She was indecisive and didn't know what she wanted to do.

Even though she loved her brother, they were different people now. He was still the bratty man that she had grown up with, obsessed with luxury and style that he had acquired in his adulthood. She was no longer the diva, the girl who had tried so hard to become what she had thought everyone wanted and who manipulated those who didn't seem to accept her for who she wasn't. She had never before felt so liberated and she definitely didn't miss the glamorous lifestyle.

But she knew that if she allowed him to leave, she would never stop thinking about him. Worrying whether he was dead or alive. Even though he had managed to survive this long, he hadn't been on his own and she had a hunch that he didn't know how to use a weapon. After all, the kind of people they had been in New York would never get their hands dirty, even if it was in an attempt to stay alive.

"I'll get them to stay for a while longer. But we're not going to wait forever for you, Wynnie. I hope you make the right decision."

With those words her brother left the room, leaving Terry's thoughts to continue as she tried to weigh the pros and cons. Both staying and leaving had enormous cons, ones that she wished that she wouldn't have to face. If only there was a way so that she could have the best of both worlds. The comfort and security of living in the prison with Daryl and the action that would come with traveling with her brother. But even if she was able to mesh the two together, it wouldn't work out. Daryl and Ryan would never get along, no matter how much she wanted it to happen.

"Terry? Ya okay?"

She looked up to see the friendly face of Maggie Greene. It was almost as if a weight was lifted off of her heart when she realized that she could talk to the girl about her situation. If she didn't have to make the decision on her own, she would be able to feel a little better. If she would have leaned on Ryan or Daryl, had he been present, she knew that it would have been a biased point of view. She liked to think that Maggie would give her honest opinion.

"I don't know what to do, Maggie," Terry started, watching as her friend took a seat next to her. "You know that they're leaving, Ryan and his group?"

Maggie shook her head, having been unaware of the fact that Ryan had been planning on leaving. Of course she had noticed that there was a group outside, the whole commotion had gotten everyone out in the court, throwing distrustful glances towards the group. But the fact that Terry's brother was leaving had completely passed her. Although she wasn't going to admit it to Terry, she was a bit relieved that the redhead was leaving. He was a mean spirited person who seemed to enjoy talking down to pretty much everyone that wasn't his sister.

"He wants me to go with him, back to New York."

So that was the problem. No wonder Terry wasn't looking too hot. She was being forced to choose between her brother and Daryl. Maggie tried to imagine being in a similar position, having to choose between Glenn and her family. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't imagine leaving her father and Beth. Even though she loved Glenn and wanted to be with him, there was no way that she would leave her family. Especially since they needed her more than Glenn would ever need her.

"I don't want to lose my brother again, Maggie. I already went through losing him, thinking that he was dead in Atlanta. And then suddenly, poof! He's alive and he's just around the corner and I'm so _happy_ that my brother is alive. Disappointed that he still is a massive asshole, but still happy."

The two women laughed at the last sentence.

"But he's leaving right away. These men come knocking up on the gate and they want him to come with them. He wants _me_ to come with him. I don't want to have to think about what happened to my brother for the rest of my life, just because I-" Terry paused, wondering what the right words would be. "Want to be with Daryl."

"I don't think I can tell you what to do, Terry. This is your decision," Maggie said, trying her best to not give her two cents. "You did look happy here with us, before your brother but you also look happy to have him around. Just try to figure out which decision you would regret less, which one you're least likely to blame someone for your choices."

Blame someone? She hadn't planned on blaming anyone but she knew that it could happen. What if she stayed with Daryl and sometime down the road she would begin to resent him? What if she would be stupid enough to act like it was his fault that she decided to stay with him instead of going with her brother? She wouldn't want to turn up that way but she worried that it would happen that way, no matter how hard she tried to avoid it.

What if she left with Ryan? Would she be able to blame him for her leaving Daryl? Although she was sure that she wouldn't be happy with it, Ryan was her brother. The only family she had left and if she left with him, she would at least be able to keep her family name living for the time being.

_Blood is thicker than water._

Her father had always told them that they had to stick together. They were Argalls and the rest of the world was filled with strangers. Argalls were supposed to stick together. It was funny that her father had said that, since he had been the one who left Ireland in order to move to New York. It wasn't like he had decided to stay with his family in Ireland. Although, when he had left Ireland, at least they had ways to communicate between countries. Terry and Ryan would have no way to keep in touch, once he left.

"I won't be able to find another brother if he leaves," she muttered to herself, trying to coax her heart into leaving. It was for the best, she told herself. Even though she would never be able to find another Daryl, she would be able to find another man to care for. _You can find another right hand._ She lied to herself, desperately trying to do the right thing. Family first, that was the right thing. She stood up and began throwing her things into her duffle bag. Most of the things were scattered around the cell she had been staying in for what felt like forever.

"It's the right thing to do in the long run, right?" she said, looking at Maggie with a pleading expression.

Maggie couldn't help but feel terrible when she saw how hard Terry was trying to suppress emotions that were about to break through. She nodded, supporting Terry's decision. She would have done the same thing, chosen her family over her loved one, at least theoretically. Her eyes stayed on the blonde as she packed up her things. Maggie didn't want to see her go. She was a likable person, someone that had no need to gossip all the time and one of the few women who didn't act like they needed someone to defend them.

"I would have done the same," Maggie said, her voice betraying her reassuring smile.

Terry picked up _Pride and Prejudice_, carefully observing the old, worn out book. In a way she had viewed Daryl as a redneck version of Mr. Darcy. He was cold and difficult to approach unless you had earned his respect. The way he treated her made her feel like Lizzy in the later chapters. Earning the affections of someone who was so cold and difficult to approach was an achievement of some sort. Although Daryl had never been particularly nasty to hear like Mr. Darcy had been to Lizzy, she still liked to compare him to her own, personal Mr. Darcy.

She placed the book on to the bed she had been sleeping on, deciding to leave it. She didn't figure Daryl to be much of a reader but she was sure that someone would appreciate the book. She looked at Maggie and smiled weakly, happy that there had been someone to talk to. She put the bag on her back and she picked up the machete, which had become her signature weapon.

Silently, the two women walked away from the cell, both of them certain that they couldn't say much before their _silly_ emotions got the best of them.

"Tell me you're getting rid of those vile men." Those were the first words Terry was greeted with when she met the rest of the group close by the gates. At the other side the group that Ryan belonged to was chattering loudly, some of the men obviously drunk. Lori was fed up with the noisiness that the men were bringing and she wanted them gone, pronto. She had been so upset with them that she had failed to notice the fact that Terry looked as if she was ready to leave.

"Where are you going Terry?"

Carl was the first one to notice that Terry had packed up her things and she was wearing them on her back. He had always thought that she was pretty cool, especially since she had lost her hand. She was a nice lady too, never talking down to him or telling him what to do. His words directed everyone's attention towards Terry and they all seemed to notice the bag now.

"I'm going home, with my brother," she answered.

"You're leaving?"

Terry wasn't able to tell whether Carol was relieved or disheartened by the news. She liked to believe that she was going to miss having her around; that Carol had grown to like her. She wasn't going to mention it though, in fear of making the goodbye into some sort of dramatic scene.

"Yes. My brother wants me to come with them to New York. He doesn't want to leave me behind."

There were a few members of the group that shifted their posture, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of her leaving. There were a few of them that didn't believe that she really wanted to go but none of them felt it was their place to tell her to stay with them. If there was anyone who was entitled to tell her to not go, it was Daryl.

"Daryl's still gone?" T-Dog asked, the realization that the redneck wasn't in the area.

"Guess so," Terry said, slightly relieved that he wasn't there. She wasn't sure if she would have been able to go through with leaving if he was there. "Haven't seen him come in or anything. Only thing happening around the gate was them arriving," she said, motioning towards the group. The idea of telling Daryl that she was going to leave made her stomach turn, anxiety forming just at the thought.

"You're going to leave without saying goodbye to him?" Glenn asked. If he had been Daryl, he would have at least liked a chance to try and change her mind. But then again, Daryl didn't function like everyone else. Maybe he wouldn't even want to be there when she was leaving.

"They're not going to wait for Daryl to get back," Terry said. "Even if I wanted to say goodbye to him, he's the one who left the prison. It isn't my fault that they aren't going to wait so I can say goodbye."

"I'll tell him," Maggie offered, knowing that no one was going to want to inform the redneck that Terry had left. "Next time I see him, I'll tell him that you had to leave right away or stay here."

Terry smiled genuinely, happy that there was someone who would do the dirty work. The fact that it was Maggie made it better, since she had been the one present when Terry made up her mind. The others wouldn't know how to tell him, they wouldn't know what the reason behind her decision was and they wouldn't even know where to begin in an attempt to explain to him. Maggie would have at least some idea.

"We'll miss having you around," Rick admitted.

"Right, I believe you," Terry said, acting as if she didn't believe him. She then winked, causing some of the members of the group to titter. "It's not like I've been a magnet for trouble or anything."

An uncomfortable silence took over after her words and it continued as she hugged the members of the group, thanking them for allowing her to stay with them. She made it a point to thank Hershel, Maggie and Glenn the most, considering the three of them the most honest of the group. At least towards her. By the time she pulled away from Carl, the group at the other side of the gate was egging her to hurry up so they could get going.

"Are they sure they don't want to wait 'till morning? Traveling in the dark isn't exactly a good idea," Rick suggested.

"I don't think they care about the darkness. They probably just want to get away as soon as possible."

"Thank you all for everything. I am forever grateful," she said as she began to walk out of the gate that had been opened after her hugging everyone. By now she had her emotions well under control and she was able to smile at the group that she was going to be leaving behind. She had been able to push the thought of Daryl out her mind, which had been the reason why she had been able to control her emotions.

"Good to see you chose me over that fucking redneck shit," Ryan said, placing an arm on to his sister's shoulder. "Da did always say that blood runs thicker than water."

* * *

"What do ya mean she's gone?"

"Daryl, she left."

"Ya'll better not be playin' some dumb game. 'S she mad at me fer callin' her brother a spudnigger? Tryin' to teach me a lesson?"

"Daryl, she left with her brother. They were going back home."

Daryl's expression changed from mild annoyance to apprehension. He hadn't believed that Terry would just up and leave. Not without saying a word to him but the look on Maggie's face seemed to tell a different story.

"They wouldn't wait for you to return so that she could tell you herself. She had to make a decision. Daryl, it was really hard for her to make up her mind. But you know what they say, blood runs-"

"Thicker than water. Don't need some bitch tellin' me that," Daryl said, turning away from Maggie and walking right back out of the gate. "Don't give a shit if she decided to leave. Didn't care 'bout her anyway."

* * *

Didn't care about her anyways. That was what he had said to Maggie and that was what he had been telling himself.

How come he was in her cell then, lying in her bed weeks after her departure? Why did that stupid book she was reading intrigue him? There was no trace that she had been in that room besides the bed that still bore a hint of her scent and that dumb book that he was playing with in his hands. Anyone else wouldn't be able to tell that she had ever been there at all.

"The hell do they know," he muttered as he turned on to his side and opened up the book.

_This book belongs to Terrwyn Argall  
Christmas gift from Uncle Seán, 1999  
"Something to keep you going through Y2K."_

"Argall," Daryl muttered, realizing that he had never known her last name. Not that it mattered much in the world they lived in. Last names no longer separated one person from another. It could separate families from the rest of the world. Ryan and Terry were Argalls. Daryl and Merle were Dixons. They were supposed to stay together, families. If he had been in the same position as she had been, Merle returning and causing trouble at the prison, he would have left too. He would have tried to keep her safe from his brother, even if it meant leaving her.

But there was an emptiness that he had never felt before now that she was gone.

Suddenly feeling something hard under the pillow, Daryl reached under and pulled out an odd looking stick.

* * *

"God damn it Terry, what the fuck did you eat last night?"

"Same thing you did, dickface," the blonde said, hitting the man standing by her side.

She spit once more for good measure, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get the taste of vomit out of her mouth. The last few days had been the same. Sometimes she would be able to chuck up the contents of her stomach, other times she was left gagging, trying to get the nausea to leave her body.

"Guess we should try and hurry up to New York," Ryan suggested with a grin on his face.

"What do you mean?" Terrwyn asked, straightening her posture.

"You know what I mean," the redhead said as he began walking, leaving his sister to catch up with him. "Looks like you got knocked up by that fucking-"

"Don't you dare."

"Redneck."

Terrwyn sighed, regretting the decision she had made weeks ago. She found herself wishing that she had never found her brother, knowing that that would have been the only way to prevent her from leaving the prison. She couldn't help but wonder if things had gone different, had Daryl shot the two men that had been sitting on the roof when they first entered the damn town. Ryan had revealed that those men had led them into the town.

When she had revealed that she had considered asking Daryl to shoot the men down, Ryan had laughed and called it _a simple twist of fate._

She cringed at the phrase her brother had used. She couldn't stand Bob Dylan and it had just happened that she had always hated that stupid song. She looked at her brother, wondering if he had used that phrase on purpose, in an attempt to get on her nerves. She looked down as she placed her hand on her stomach. She had never remembered to check that damn stick before she left.

Another stupid twist of fate.

* * *

**A/n:** This is the end of A Simple Twist of Fate. I know it's short but I had always planned it to end this way. HOWEVER, I can't let Terry and Daryl have a unhappy ending. If you are not happy with this ending, let me know and I will notify you when I get around to writing the sequel that I have in mind. I won't be as long as this, but I'm dying to give a glimpse into the things that take place when Terry is in New York. I might even do just a few chapters here and there that take place at random time periods, sometimes years after this takes place.

Anyways, thank you all for being lovely. I want to thank those that have reviewed, I love you guys! (Alina Maxwell, Emberka-2012, Leyshla Gisel, GatorGirl99, Chachi94 and JavaNut, you all are awesome!)


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